y/^^^yL^:it_^c^^^y 


LAYS 


ANCIENT     ROME. 


BY 


THOMAS   BABINGTON   MACAULAY. 


ILLUSTRATIONS,    ORIGINAL   AND    FROM    THE    ANTIQUE, 


DHA.WN    ON    WOOD 


BY   GEORGE    SCHARF,   JUN. 


NEW     EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  E.  H.  BUTLER  k  CO. 

1854. 


1 


.  iicr 


■^^^^'"irx.       -'  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


PREFACE. 


That  what  is  called  the  history  of  the  Kings  and  early 
Consuls  of  Rome  is  to  a  great  extent  fabulous,  few  scholars 
have,  since  the  time  of  Beaufort,  ventured  to  deny.  It  is 
certain  that,  more  than  three  hundred  and  sixty  years  after 
the  date  ordinarily  assigned  for  the  foundation  of  the  city, 
the  public  records  were,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  destroyed 
by  the  Gauls.  It  is  certain  that  the  oldest  annals  of  the 
commonwealth  were  compiled  more  than  a  century  and  a  half 
after  this  destruction  of  the  records.  It  is  certain,  therefore, 
that  the  great  Latin  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  did  not 


I'K  i:rA(i:. 

iH>sj«os-'<  tlu>so  m:itiMi;ils.  \vi(lioiit  wliicli  ;i  liii^-t worth v  account 
of  tlio  infancv  o['  tlic  rcpulilic  could  not  possiMv  he  IVanicd. 
Tl>os<»  writei-n  own,  iiulccil,  that  the  clirouich's  (o  which  thcv 
hail  acoes8  weiv  lilK-d  with  hattlcs  that  were  never  lought, 
and  Consuls  that  wi  iv  iicmt  inaiiguratod  ;  and  -we  have 
al)inulant  proof  tliat.  in  tlicse  elironicles,  events  of  the  greatest 
imix)rtance.  such  as  the  issue  of  the  war  witli  Porsena,  and 
the  issue  of  the  war  with  Ihennus,  were  grossly  misrepre- 
sented. Tnder  these  circumstances  a  Avise  man  will  look 
with  great  suspicion  on  the  legend  which  has  come  dow^n  to 
us.  He  will  perhaps  he  inclined  to  regard  the  princes  who 
are  said  to  have  founded  the  civil  and  religious  institutions 
of  Rome,  the  son  of  Mars,  and  the  husband  of  Egeria,  as 
mere  mythological  personages,  of  the  same  class  with  Perseus 
and  Ixion.  As  he  draws  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  confines 
of  authentic  history,  he  will  become  less  and  less  hard  of 
Ix'lief  He  will  admit  that  the  most  important  parts  of  the 
narrative  have  some  foundation  in  truth.  But  he  will  dis- 
trust almost  all  the  details,  not  only  because  they  seldom 
rest  on  any  solid  evidence,  but  also  because  he  will  con- 
stantly detect  in  them,  even  when  they  are  within  the  limits 
of  physical  possibility,  that  peculiar  character,  more  easily 
understood  than  defined,  which   distinguishes    the   creations 


TKEFACE.  7 

of  the  imagination  from  the  realities  of  the  world  in  which  we 
live. 

The  early  history  of  Rome  is  indeed  far  more  poetical  than 
anything  else  in  Latin  literature.  The  loves  of  the  Vestal 
and  the  God  of  War,  the  cradle  laid  among  the  reeds  of  Tiber, 
the  fig-tree,  the  she-wolf,  the  shepherd's  cabin,  the  recog- 
nition, the  fratricide,  the  rape  of  the  Sabines,  the  death  of 
Tarpeia,  the  fiill  of  Hostus  Hostilius,  the  struggle  of  Mettus 
Curtius  through  the  marsh,  the  women  rushing  with  torn 
raiment  and  dishevelled  hair  between  their  fathers  and  their 
husbands,  the  nightly  meetings  of  Numa  and  the  Nymph  by 
the  well  in  the  sacred  grove,  the  fight  of  the  three  Romans 
and  the  three  Albans,  the  purchase  of  the  Sibylline  books,  the 
crime  of  Tullia,  the  simulated  madness  of  Brutus,  the  am- 
biguous reply  of  the  Delphian  oracle  to  the  Tarquins,  the 
wrongs  of  Lucretia,  the  heroic  actions  of  Horatius  Codes, 
of  Sccevola,  and  of  Cloolia,  the  battle  of  Regillus,  won  by  the 
aid  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  the  defence  of  Cremera,  the  touching 
story  of  Coriolanus,  the  still  more  touching  story  of  Virginia, 
the  wild  legend  about  the  draining  of  the  Alban  lake,  the  com- 
bat between  Valerius  Corvus  and  the  gigantic  Gaul,  are  among 
the  many  instances  which  will  at  on^e  suggest  themselves  to 
every  reader. 


8  rKKTACi:. 

la  tlif  uarnitiM'  of  I-i\v.  who  was  a  man  of  lliu'  imagi- 
imtion,  thci^o  sttirios  ivtaiii  iniich  (»l"  their  ^ticiuiine  cliariU'tor. 
Nor  could  even  tlie  tasteless  Dionysius  distort  and  mntilate 
them  into  mere  prose.  The  i)()etrv  shines,  in  spite  of  liini, 
throuirh  the  drearv  pedantry  of  his  eleven  books.  It  is  dis- 
cernible in  the  most  tedious  and  in  the  most  superficial 
modern  works  on  the  early  times  of  Rome.  It  enlivens  the 
dulncss  of  the  Universal  History,  and  gives  a  charm  to  the 
most  meagre  abridgments  of  Goldsmith. 

Even  in  the  age  of  Plutarch,  there  were  discerning  rnen 
who  rejected  the  popular  account  of  the  foundation  of  Rome, 
because  that  account  appeared  to  them  to  have  the  air,  not  of 
a  history,  but  of  a  romance  or  a  drama.  Plutarch,  who  Avas 
di.sploased  at  their  incredulit}'.  had  nothing  better  to  say  in 
reply  to  their  arguments  than  that  chance  sometimes  turns 
poet,  and  produces  trains  of  events  not  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  most  elaborate  plots  which  are  constructed  by  art.'"     But 

*  "tro^Tov  ftj'v  ev/oif  idTi  to  Jpafj-aTixov  xai  '7:'ka<ffia<ruiSss'  ou  8e7  r5s  difidTsTv,  Tr,v 
cJ^^r.v  'p-lyTug,  oluv  ^oi>j|xarwv  Sr,[j.ir,-jpyog  cVri. — Plut.  Rom.  viii.  This  remarkable 
passage  has  been  more  grossly  interpreted  than  any  other  in  the  Greek  lun- 
puajre,  where  the  sense  was  so  obvious.  The  Latin  version  of  Cruserius,  the 
French  version  of  Amyot,  the  old  English  version  by  several  hands,  and  the 
later  English  version  by  Langhorne,  are  all  equally  destitute  of  every  trace  of 
the  meaning  of  the  original.  None  of  the  translators  saw  even  that  for/j^aa  is  a 
poem.     They  all  render  it  an  event. 


PREFACE.  'J 

though  the  existence  of  a  poetical  element  in  the  early  history 
of  the  Great  City  was  detected  so  many  ages  ago,  the  first 
critic  who  distinctly  saw  from  what  source  that  poetical  ele- 
ment had  been  derived  was  James  Perizonius,  one  of  the  most 
acute  and  learned  antiquaries  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
His  theory,  which,  in  his  own  days,  attracted  little  or  no 
notice,  was  revived  in  the  present  generation  by  Niebuhr,  a 
man  who  would  have  been  the  first  writer  of  his  time,  if  his 
talent  for  communicating  truths  had  borne  any  proportion  to 
his  talent  for  investigating  them.  That  theory  has  been 
adopted  by  several  eminent  scholars  of  our  own  country,  par- 
ticularly by  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  by  Professor  Maiden, 
and  by  the  lamented  Arnold.  It  appears  to  be  now  generally 
received  by  men  conversant  with  classical  antiquity ;  and 
indeed  it  rests  on  such  strong  proofs,  both  internal  and  exter- 
nal, that  it  will  not  be  easily  subverted.  A  popular  exposi- 
tion of  this  theorj^,  and  of  the  evidence  by  which  it  is  sup- 
ported, may  not  be  without  interest  even  for  readers  who  are 
unacquainted  with  the  ancient  languages. 

The  Latin  literature  which  has  come  down  to  us  is  of  later 
date  than  the  commencement  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  and 
consists  almost  exclusively  of  words  fashioned  on  Greek  models. 
The  Latin  metres,  heroic,  elegiac,  lyric,  and  driiniatic,  are  of 


10  riiKFAci:. 

(li.irx  i.iiLiin.  Tlic  lust  I.atiu  epic  jioctrv  is  the  tcchlc  cclio 
»)!'  tlio  Iliad  anil  (Mvssrv.  Tlir  lust  Latin  I'cloLiiU's  aro 
imitations  dI'  Tlirocritus.  T\\v  plan  c»l"  the  most  linislicd 
iliilactic  pooni  in  the  Latin  tonune  was  taken  Ironi  IK'siod. 
The  Latin  tragodios  aro  liad  copies  of  the  niaster-pieees  of 
Sophocles  and  Knrijiides.  The  Latin  comedies  are  iVee  trans- 
lations from  Deniophilus.  Menander,  and  Appolodorus.  The 
Latin  philosoi)hy  Mas  borrowed,  Avithont  alteration,  from  the 
Portico  and  the  Academy;  and  the  great  Latin  orators  con- 
stantly proposed  to  themselves  as  patterns  the  speeches  of 
Demosthenes  and  Lysias. 

But  there  was  an  earlier  Latin  literature,  a  literature  truly 
Latin,  which  has  wholly  perished,  which  had,  indeed,  almost 
wholly  perished  long  before  those  whom  we  are  in  the  habit 
of  regarding  as  the  greatest  Latin  writers  were  born.  That 
literature  abounded  with  metrical  romances,  such  as  are  found 
in  every  country  where  there  is  much  curiositj'  and  intelli- 
gence, but  little  reading  and  writing.  All  human  beings,  not 
utterly  savage,  long  for  some  information  about  past  times, 
and  are  delighted  by  narratives  which  present  pictures  to  the 
eye  of  the  mind.  But  it  is  only  in  very  enlightened  commu- 
nities that  books  are  readily  accessible.  Metrical  composi- 
tion, therefore,  which,  in  a  highly  civilized  nation,  is  a  mere 


PREFACE. 


11 


luxury,  is,  in  nations  imperfectly  civilized,  almost  a  necessary 
of  life,  and  is  valued  less  on  account  of  the  pleasure  which  it 
gives  to  the  ear,  than  on  account  of  the  help  which  it  gives 
to  the  memory.  A  man  who  can  invent  or  embellish  an 
interesting  story,  and  put  it  into  a  form  which  others  may 
easily  retain  in  their  recollection,  will  always  be  highly 
esteemed  by  a  people  eager  for  amusement  and  information, 
but  destitute  of  libraries.  Such  is  the  origin  of  ballad-poetry, 
a  species  of  composition  which  scarcely  ever  fails  to  spring  up 
and  flourish  in  every  society,  at  a  certain  point  in  the  progress 
towards  refinement.  Tacitus  informs  us  that  songs  were  the 
only  memorials  of  the  past  which  the  ancient  Germans  pos- 
sessed. We  learn  from  Lucan  and  from  Ammianus  Marcel- 
linus,  that  the  brave  actions  of  the  ancient  Gauls  were  com- 
memorated in  the  verses  of  Bards.  During  many  ages,  and 
through  many  revolutions,  minstrelsy  retained  its  influence 
over  both  the  Teutonic  and  the  Celtic  race.  The  vengeance 
exacted  by  the  spouse  of  Attila,  for  the  murder  of  Siegfried, 
was  celebrated  in  rhymes,  of  which  Germany  is  still  justly 
proud.  The  exploits  of  Athelstane  were  commemorated  by 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  those  of  Canute  by  the  Danes,  in  rude 
poems,  of  which  a  few  fragments  have  come  down  to  us.  The 
chants  of  the  Welsh  harpers  preserved,  through  ages  of  dark- 


I-  ri;  KiAiK. 

no8S,  a  faint  aiul  (louldliil  iiicnuirv  of  Artliur.  In  tlic  lliiili- 
lajuls  oi'  Si-Mtlaml  ]na\  still  Ik'  uloani'd  some  ivlics  ol"  the  old 
songs  alxmt  ("iithuUin  and  Fin,i:al.  The  long  struggle  of  the 
Servians  aiiainst  the  Ottoman  power  uas  recorded  in  lays  full 
of  martial  spirit.  AVe  learn  from  llerrera,  that,  when  a  Peru- 
\  ian  Inea  dii-d.  men  of  skill  were  appointed  to  celebrate  him 
in  verses,  whii'h  all  the  peojjle  learned  by  heart,  and  sang  in 
public  on  days  of  festival.  The  feats  of  Kurroglou,  the  great 
freebooter  of  Tnrkistan.  recounted  in  ballads  composed  by 
him.self,  are  known  in  every  village  of  Northern  Persia. 
Cajitain  Beechey  heard  the  bards  of  the  Sandwich  Islands 
recite  the  heroic  achievements  of  Tamehameha,  the  most 
illustrious  of  their  kings.  Mungo  Park  found  in  the  heart 
of  Africa,  a  class  of  singing  men,  the  only  annalists  of  their 
rude  tribes,  and  heard  them  tell  the  story  of  the  victory 
which  Darael,  the  negro  prince  of  the  Jalofis,  "won  over 
Abdulkader,  the  Mussulman  tyrant  of  Foota  Torra.  This 
species  of  poetry  attained  a  high  degree  of  excellence  among 
the  Castilians,  before  they  began  to  copy  Tuscan  patterns. 
It  attained  a  still  hitiher  deG:ree  of  excellence  amonor  the 
English  and  the  Lowland  Scotch,  during  the  fourteenth, 
fifteenth-  and  sixteenth  centuries.  But  it  reached  its  full 
perfection    in    ancii  nt    CI  recce ;    for    there    can    be    no    doubt 


PREFACE.  13 

that  the  great  Homeric  poems  are  genericallj  ballads,  though 
widely  distinguished  from  all  other  ballads,  and  indeed  from 
almost  all  other  human  compositions,  by  transcendent  subli- 
mity and  beauty. 

As  it  is  agreeable  to  general  experience  that,  at  a  certain 
stage  in  the  progress  of  society,  ballad-poetry  should  flourish, 
so  is  it  also  agreeable  to  general  experience  that,  at  a  subse- 
quent stage  in  the  progress  of  society,  ballad-poetry  should  be 
undervalued  and  neglected.  Knowledge  advances :  manners 
change :  great  foreign  models  of  composition  are  studied  and 
imitated.  The  phraseology  of  the  old  minstrels  becomes  ob- 
solete. Their  versification,  which,  having  received  its  laws 
only  from  the  ear,  abounds  in  irregularities,  seems  licentious 
and  uncouth.  Their  simplicity  appears  beggarly  when  com- 
pared with  the  quaint  forms  and  gaudy  coloring  of  such 
artists  as  Cowley  and  Gongora.  The  ancient  lays,  unjustly 
despised  by  the  learned  and  polite,  linger  for  a  time  in  the 
memory  of  the  vulgar,  and  are  at  length  too  often  irretrieva- 
bly lost.  We  cannot  wonder  that  the  ballads  of  Rome 
should  have  altogether  disappeared,  when  we  remember  how^ 
very  narrowly,  in  spite  of  the  invention  of  printing,  those  of 
our  own  country,  and  those  of  Spain  escaped  the  same  fate. 
There  is  indeed  little  doubt  that  oblivion  covers  many  Eng- 


1  *  r  K  K  F  A  (■  i:. 

lish  songs  oijual  to  ;inv  tli;it  wrrr  |>ulilisli('(l  l)v  Uisliop  IVrcN', 
ami  many  Spanish  soni^s  as  iiood  as  the  best  of  tliosi'  which 
have  U'en  so  hai)[)ily  transhited  by  Mr.  Loekhart.  Eighty 
years  ago  Enghiml  possessed  onl}-  one  tattered  copy  of  Childe 
Waters  and  Sir  Canline.  and  Spain  only  one  tattered  copy 
of  the  noble  poem  of  the  Cid.  The  snufT  of  a  candle,  or  a 
mischievous  dog,  might  in  a  moment  have  deprived  the  ^vorld 
for  ever  of  any  of  those  fine  compositions.  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
who  united  to  the  fire  of  a  great  poet,  the  minute  curiosity 
and  patient  diligence  of  a  great  antiquary,  was  but  just  in 
time  to  save  the  precious  relics  of  the  Minstrelsy  of  the 
Border.  In  Germany,  the  lav  of  the  Nibeluncrs  had  been 
long  utterly  forgotten  when,  in  the  eighteenth  ccnturj^,  it 
was,  for  the  first  time,  printed  from  a  manuscript  in  the  old 
library  of  a  noble  family.  In  truth,  the  only  people  who, 
through  their  whole  passage  from  simplicity  to  the  highest 
civilization,  never  for  a  moment  ceased  to  love  and  admire 
their  old  ballads,  were  the  Greeks. 

That  the  early  Romans  should  have  had  baUad-poetry,  and 
that  this  poetry  should  have  perished,  is  therefore  not  strange. 
It  would,  on  the  contrary,  have  been  strange  if  these  things 
had  not  come  to  pass;  and  we  should  be  justified  in  pro- 
nouncing them  highly  probable,  even  if  we  had  no  direct  evi- 


PREFACE.  15 

dence  on  the  subject.  But  we  have  direct  evidence  of  unques- 
tionable authority. 

Ennius,  who  flourished  in  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic 
War,  was  regarded  in  the  Augustan  age  as  the  father  of 
Latin  poetry.  He  was,  in  truth,  the  father  of  the  second 
school  of  Latin  poetry,  the  only  school  of  which  the  works 
have  descended  to  us.  But  from  Ennius  himself  we  learn 
that  there  were  poets  who  stood  to  him  in  the  same  relation 
in  which  the  author  of  the  romance  of  Count  Alarcos  stood 
to  Garcilaso,  or  the  author  of  the  "  Lytell  Geste  of  Robyn 
Hode"  to  Lord  Surrey.  Ennius  speaks  of  verses  which  the 
Fauns  and  the  Bards  were  wont  to  chant  in  the  old  time, 
when  none  had  yet  studied  the  graces  of  speech,  when  none 
had  yet  climbed  the  peaks  sacred  to  the  Goddesses  of  Grecian 
song.  "  Where,"  Cicero  mournfully  asks,  "  are  those  old 
verses  uow  ?"* 

*  "  Quid  ?     Nostri  veteres  versus  ubi  suut  ? 

<  Quos  olim  Fiiuni  vatcscjue  canebant 

Cum  neque  Musarum  scopulos  quisquam  supcrarat, 
Nee  dicti  studiosus  erat.'  " 

Jh-utiis,  xviii. 

The  Muses,  it  should  be  observed,  are  Greek  divinities.  The  Italian  Goddesses 
of  verse  were  the  Camocnae.  At  a  later  period,  the  appellations  were  used  in- 
discriminately; but  in  the  age  of  Ennius  there  was  probably  a  distinction.  In 
the  epitaph  of  Najvius,  who  was  the  representative  of  the  old  Italian  school  of 


U>  I'l;  i:i- Aci:. 

(Vtntoinpoiarx  with  Ijinius  \vas  (.hiiiittis  l"\iliiiis  Pictor,  tlic 
»>arlii'st  of  tlu'  lloniaii  annalists.  His  account  of  the  inlancy 
anil  voutli  of  IJonuilus  and  Kcnins  lias  been  pivst'ivcd  by 
Oioinsins,  anil  contains  a  very  remarkable  reference  to  the 
ancient  Tiatin  poetry.  Fal)ius  says  that,  in  his  time,  his  coun- 
trymen ^vere  still  in  the  habit  oi'  singing  ballads  ;ibuat  the 
twins.  ••  Kven  in  the  hut  of  Faustulus," — so  these  old  lays 
appear  to  have  run, — "  the  eliildren  of  Khea  and  Mars  were, 
in  port  and  in  spirit,  not  like  unto  swineherds  or  cowherds, 
but  such  that  men  might  well  guess  them  to  be  of  the  blood 
of  Kings  and  Gods."'-' 

poetry,  the  Canioena;,  not  the  Muses,  are  represented  as  grieving  for  the  loss  of 
their  votary.     The  "Musarum  scopuli"  are  evidently  the  peaks  of  Parnassus. 

8caliger,  in  a  note  on  Varro  (^De  Limjua  Latino,  lib.  vi.),  suggests,  with 
great  ingenuity,  that  the  Fauns,  who  were  represented  by  the  superstition  of 
hiter  ages  as  a  race  of  monsters,  half  gods  and  half  brutes,  may  really  have  been 
a  class  of  men  who  exercised  in  Latium,  at  a  very  remote  period,  the  same  func- 
tions which  belonged  to  the  Magians  in  Persia  and  to  the  IJurds  in  Graul. 

*  Oi  6f  ufOp'jidivTSS  yivovrai,  y.aru  <r£  d^t'wtfiv  fxopcpr^j  xxt  (pp(jvr,ij.aTos  oyxov,  oj 
'TwOjopoor^  xai  jSouxoXoij  toixo-rej,  ctXX'  oi'o-og  civ  rig  o^iCia-eis  touj  sx  /^arfiXsi'ou  t£ 
:^'jM7as  yivovg,  xa»  a.i:o  ^aija&vwv  tfa-opaj  yencdQai  vo(jLi^9(ji-£vouf,  ug  iv  roTg  TaTptoi?  ilfxvoij 
Ico  'Pi;|i.oiijv  tTi  xai  vvv  aQBrai. — Dion.  Hal.  i.  79.  This  passage  has  sometimes 
been  cited  as  if  Dionysius  had  been  speaking  in  his  own  person,  and  had,  Greek 
as  he  was,  been  so  industrious  or  so  fortunate  as  to  discover  some  valuable  re- 
mains of  that  early  Latin  poetry  which  the  greatest  Latin  writers  of  his  age 
regretted  as  hopelessly  lost.  Such  a  supposition  is  highly  improbable;  and 
indeed  it  seems  clear  from  the  context  that  Dionysius,  as  Keiske  and  other  edi- 
tors evidently  thought,  was  merely  quoting  from  Fabius  Pictor.  The  whole 
passage  has  the  air  of  an  extract  from  an  ancient  chronicle,  and  i.<  introduced 
by  the  words,  Koiv-o5  fj-i*  4'se?ios,  o  n/xrwp  Xj^f'fXsVij,  Tf,i)s  ypa({;£i. 


PREFACE.  17 

Cato  the  Censor,  who  also  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Second 
Punic  War,  mentioned  this  lost  literature  in  his  lost  work  on 

Another  argument  may  be  urged  which  seems  to  deserve  consideration. 
The  author  of  the  passage  in  question  mentions  a  thatched  hut  which,  in  his 
time,  stood  between  the  summit  of  Mount  Palatine  and  the  Circus.  This  hut, 
he  says,  was  built  by  Romulus,  and  was  constantly  kept  in  repair  at  the  public 
charge,  but  never  in  any  respect  embellished.  Now,  in  the  age  of  Dionysius 
there  certainly  was  at  Rome  a  thatched  hut,  said  to  have  been  that  of  Romulus. 
But  this  hut,  as  we  learn  from  Vitruvius,  stood,  not  near  the  Circus,  but  in 
the  Capitol.  (^Vit.  ii.  1.)  If,  therefore,  we  understand  Dionysius  to  speak  in 
his  own  person,  we  can  reconcile  his  statement  with  that  of  Vitruvius  only  by 
supposing  that  there  were  at  Rome,  in  the  Augustan  age,  two  thatched  huts, 
both  believed  to  have  been  built  by  Romulus,  and  both  carefully  repaired,  and 
held  in  high  honor.  The  objections  to  such  a  supposition  seem  to  be  strong. 
Neither  Dionysius  nor  Vitruvius  speaks  of  more  than  one  such  hut.  Dio  Cas- 
eins informs  us  that  twice,  during  the  long  administration  of  Augustus,  the  hut 
of  Romulus  caught  fire,  (xlviii.  43,  liv.  29.)  Had  there  been  two  such  huts, 
would  he  not  have  told  us  of  which  he  spoke?  An  English  historian  would 
hardly  give  an  account  of  a  fire  at  Queen's  College  without  saying  whether  it 
was  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  or  at  Queen's  College,  Cambridge.  Marcus 
Seneca,  Macrobius,  and  Conon,  a  Greek  writer  from  whom  Photius  has  made 
large  extracts,  mention  only  one  hut  of  Romulus,  that  in  the  Capitol.  (M. 
Seneca,  Contr.  i.  6j  Macrohius,  Sat.  i.  15;  Photius,  Bill.  186.)  Ovid, 
Livy,  Petronius,  Valerius  Maximus,  Lucius  Seneca,  and  St.  Jerome,  mention 
only  one  hut  of  Romulus,  without  specifying  the  site.  (^Ovid.  Fasti,  iii.  183; 
Liv.  X.  53;  Petronius,  Fragm. ;  Val.  Max.  iv.  4;  L.  Seneca,  Consolatio  ad 
Helviam;  D.  Hieron.  ad  Paulinianum  de  Did^mo.) 

The  whole  difiiculty  is  removed,  if  we  suppose  that  Dionysius  was  merely 
quoting  Fabius  Pictor.  Nothing  is  more  probable  than  that  the  cabin,  which 
in  the  time  of  Fabius  stood  near  the  Circus,  might,  long  before  the  age  of 
Augustus,  have  been  transported  to  the  Capitol,  as  the  place  fittest,  by  reasou 
both  of  its  safety  and  of  its  sanctity,  to  contain  so  precious  a  relic. 

The  language  of  Plutarch  confirms  this  hypothesis.  He  describes,  with 
great  precision,  the  spot  where  Romulus  dwelt,  on  the  slope  of  Mount  Palatine 
leading  to  the  Circus;  but  he  says  not  a  word  implying  that  the  dwelling  was 


18  r  K  K  V  A  ('  E. 

tlio  antiquities  of  liis  countrv.  jNIaii}-  ages,  lie  said,  beibre  his 
time,  tliere  were  1)alla(ls  in  praise  of  iUustrioiis  men;  and  these 
balhids  it  ^vas  the  lashion  ibr  the  guests  at  banquets  to  sing 
in  turn  \vhile  the  piper  played.  "Would,"  exclaims  Cicero, 
"that  we  still  had  the  old  ballads  of  which  Cato  speaks!"* 

Valerius  Maximus  gives  us  exactly  similar  information, 
without  mentioning  his  authority,  and  observes  that  the  an- 
cient Roman  ballads  were  probably  of  more  benefit  to  the 
joung  than  all  the  lectures  of  the  Athenian  schools,  and  that 
to  the  influence  of  the  national  poetry  were  to  be  ascribed  the 
virtues  of  such  men  as  Camillus  and  Fabricius.f 

still  to  be  seen  there.  Indeed,  his  expressions  imply  that  it  was  no  longer 
there.  The  evidence  of  Solinus  is  still  more  to  the  point.  He,  like  Plutarch, 
describes  the  spot  where  Romulus  had  resided,  and  says  expressly  that  the  hut 
had  been  there,  but  that  in  his  time  it  was  there  no  longer.  The  site,  it  is 
certain,  was  well  remembered;  and  probably  retained  its  old  name,  as  Charing 
Cross  and  the  Haymarket  have  done.  This  is  probably  the  explanation  of  the 
words,  '"'casa  Romuli,"  in  Victor's  description  of  the  Tenth  Region  of  Rome, 
under  Yalentinian. 

*  Cicero  refers  twice  to  this  important  passage  in  Cato's  Antiquities : — 
"Gravissimus  auctor  in  Originibus  dixit  Cato,  morem  apud  majores  hunc  epu- 
laruin  fuisse,  ut  deinceps,  qui  accubarent,  canerent  ad  tibiam  clarorum  virorum 
laudes  atque  virtutes.  Ex  quo  perspicuum  est,  et  cantus  tum  fuisse  rescriptos 
vocum  sonis,  et  carmina." — Tusc.  Quast.  ix.  2.  Again:  "Utinam  exstarent 
ilia  carmina,  quae,  multis  saeculis  ante  suam  oetatera,  in  epulis  esse  cantitata  a 
singulis  convivis  de  clarorum  virorum  laudibus,  in  Originibus  scriptum  rcliquit 
Cato." — Brutus,  xix. 

f  ''Majores  natu  in  conviviis  ad  tibias  cgregia  superiorum  opera  carmine 
comprehensa  pangebant,  quo  ad  ea  imitanda  juventutem  alacriorem  redderent. 


PREFACE.  19 

Varro,  whose  authority  on  all  questions  connected  with  the 
antiquities  of  his  country  is  entitled  to  the  greatest  respect, 
tells  us  that  at  banquets  it  was  once  the  fashion  for  boys  to 
sing,  sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without  instrumental 
music,  ancient  ballads  in  praise  of  men  of  former  times.  These 
young  performers,  he  observes,  were  of  unblemished  character, 
a  circumstance  which  he  probably  mentioned  because,  among 
the  Greeks,  and  indeed  in  his  time  among  the  Romans  also, 
the  morals  of  singing  boys  were  in  no  high  repute.* 

The  testimony  of  Horace,  though  given  incidentally,  con- 
firms the  statements  of  Cato,  Valerius  Maximus,  and  Varro. 
The  poet  predicts  that,  under  the  peaceful  administration  of 
Augustus,  the  Romans  will,  over  their  full  goblets,  sing  to 
the  pipe,  after  the  fashion  of  their  fathers,  the  deeds  of  brave 
captains,  and  the  ancient  legends  touching  the  origin  of  the 
city.f 

.  .  .  Quas  Athenas,  quam  scliolara,  quae  alienigena  studia  huic  domesticse 
disciplina3  prsetulerim  ?  Inde  oriebantur  Camilli,  Scipioncs,  Fabricii,  Marcelli, 
Fabii." — Val.  Max.  ii.  1. 

*  ''  la  conviviis  pueri  modesti  ut  cantarent  carmina  antiqua,  in  quibus 
laudes  erant  majorum,  et  assa  voce,  et  cum  tibicine." — Nonius,  Asaa  voce  "pro 
sola. 

f  "Nosquc  et  profcstis  lucibus  et  sacris, 
Inter  jocosi  niuncra  Liberi, 

Cum  prole  matronisquc  nostris, 
Rite  Deos  prius  apprecati. 


20  rwr.  FACE. 

Tlio  pn>|H)sitii»ii.  iIh'iu  (Iiat  lu)nio  liad  l)al lad-poetry  is  not 
iiuMvly  in  itself  lii;;lily  proliahlo,  liut  is  Tully  })r()ved  by  direct 
evidence  of  the  greatest  weight. 

This  proposition  being  established,  it  becomes  easy  to  un- 
derstand why  tlie  early  history  of  the  city  is  unlike  almost 
everything  else  in  Latin  literature,  native  where  almost  every- 
thing else  is  borrowed,  imaginative  where  almost  everything 
else  is  prosaic.  We  can  scarcely  hesitate  to  pronounce  that 
the  magnificent,  pathetic,  and  truly  national  legends,  which 
present  so  striking  a  contrast  to  all  that  surrounds  them,  are 
broken  and  defaced  fragments  of  that  early  poetry  which, 
even  in  the  age  of  Cato  the  Censor,  had  become  antiquated, 
and  of  which  Tully  had  never  heard  a  line. 

That  this  poetry  should  have  been  suffered  to  perish  will 
not  appear  strange  when  we  consider  how  complete  was  the 
triumph  of  the  Greek  genius  over  the  public  mind  of  Italy. 
It  is  probable  that,  at  an  early  period.  Homer  and  Plero- 
dotus   furnished   some   hints   to   the   Latin   minstrels  ■^'    but 

Virtute  functos,  more  patrum,  duces, 
Lydis  reuiixto,  carmine  tibiis, 
Trojamque,  ct  Anchisen,  et  almae 
Progenicm  Veneris  canemus." 

Carm.  iv.  15. 

*  See  the  Preface  to  the  Lay  of  the  Battle  of  Regillus. 


PREFACE.  21 

it  was  not  till  after  the  war  with  Pyrrhus  that  the  poetry 
of  Rome  began  to  put  off  its  old  Ausonian  character.  The 
transformation  was  soon  consummated.  The  conquered,  says 
Horace,  led  captive  the  conquerors.  It  was  precisely  at  the 
time  at  which  the  Roman  people  rose  to  unrivalled  political 
ascendency  that  they  stooped  to  pass  under  the  intellectual 
yoke.  It  was  precisely  at  the  time  at  which  the  sceptre 
departed  from  Greece  that  the  empire  of  her  language  and 
of  her  arts  became  universal  and  despotic.  The  revolution 
indeed  was  not  effected  without  a  struggle.  Naevius  seems 
to  have  been  the  last  of  the  ancient  line  of  poets.  Ennius 
was  the  founder  of  a  new  dynasty.  Naevius  celebrated  the 
First  Punic  War  in  Saturnian  verse,  the  old  national  verse 
of  Italy.*     Ennius  sang  the  Second  Punic  War  in  numbers 

*  Cicero  speaks  highly  in  more  than  one  place  of  this  poem  of  Nasvius ; 
Ennius  sneered  at  it,  and  stole  from  it. 

As  to  the  Saturnian  measure,  see  Hermann's  Elenienta  Doctrlnm  Metricce, 
iii.  9. 

The  Saturnian  line,  according  to  the  grammarians,  consisted  of  two  parts. 
The  first  was  a  catalectic  dimeter  iambic ;  the  second  was  composed  of  three 
trochees.  But  the  license  taken  by  the  early  Latin  poets  seems  to  have  been 
almost  boundless.  The  most  perfect  Saturnian  line  which  has  been  preserved 
was  the  work,  not  of  a  professional  artist,  but  of  an  amateur  : 

"  Dabunt  malum  Metelli  Na3vio  poetaj." 

There  has  been  much  difference  of  opinion  among  learned  men  respecting 
the  history  of  this  measure.  That  it  is  the  same  with  a  Greek  measure  used 
by  Archilochus  is  indisputable.     (^Bcutlry,  Pliuluris,  xi.)     JJut  in  spite  of  the 


I'KKF  ACK, 

iKirroweil  tVom  tlio  Iliad.  The  elder  poet,  in  the  epitaph 
^vllieh  he  \vi\)te  for  himself,  and  Avhieh  is  a  line  specimen  of 

authorit}-  of  Tercntianus  Maurus,  and  of  the  still  higber  authority  of  IJcntley, 
we  may  venture  to  doubt  whether  the  coincidence  was  not  fortuitous.  We  con- 
stantly find  the  same  rude  and  simple  numbers  in  different  countries,  under 
cireumstanios  which  make  it  impossible  to  suspect  that  there  has  been  imitation 
on  either  side.  Bishop  llebcr  heard  the  children  of  a  village  in  Bengal  singing 
"Radha,  Radha,"  to  the  tune  of  "My  boy  Billy."  Neither  the  Castilian  nor 
the  German  minstrels  of  the  middle  ages  owed  anything  to  Paros  or  to  ancient 
Rome.  Yet  both  the  poem  of  the  Cid  and  the  poem  of  the  Nibelungs  contain 
many  Saturnian  verses;  as, — 

"  Estas  nuevas  a  mio  Cid  eran  venidas." 
'•'A  mi  lo  dicen;  a  ti  dan  las  orejadas." 

"Man  mohte  michel  wunder  von  Sifride  sagen." 
"  Wa  ich  den  Kiinic  vinde  daz  sol  man  mir  sagen." 

Indeed,  there  cannot  be  a  more  perfect  Saturnian  line  than  one  which  is  sung 
in  every  English  nursery — 

"The  queen  was  in  her  parlor  eating  bread  and  honey;" 

yet  the  author  of  this  line,  we  may  be  assured,  borrowed  nothing  from  either 
Xa2vius  or  Archilochus. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that,  two  or  three  hundred 
years  before  the  time  of  Ennius,  some  Latin  minstrel  may  have  visited  Sybaris 
or  Crotona,  may  have  heard  some  verses  of  Archilochus  sung,  may  have  been 
pleased  with  the  metre,  and  may  have  introduced  it  at  Rome.  Thus  much  is 
certain,  that  the  Saturnian  measure,  if  not  a  native  of  Italy,  was  at  least  so 
early  and  so  completely  naturalized  there  that  its  foreign  origin  was  forgotten. 

Bentley  says  indeed  that  the  Saturnian  measure  was  first  brought  from 
Greece  into  Italy  by  Naevius.  But  this  is  merely  ohita-  dictum,  to  use  a  phrase 
common  in  our  courts  of  law,  and  would  not  have  been  deliberately  maintained 
by  that  incomparable  critic,  whose  memory  is  held  in  reverence  by  all  lovers  of 
learning.  The  arguments  which  might  be  brought  against  Bentley's  assertion 
— for  it  is  mere  assertion,  supported  by  no  evidence — are  innumerable.  A  few 
will  suffice. 


PREFACE.  23 

the  early  Roman  diction  and  versification,  plaintively  boasted 
that  the  Latin  language  had  died  with  him.*  Thus  what  to 
Horace  appeared  to  be  the  first  faint  dawn  of  Roman  litera- 
ture appeared  to  Naevius  to  be  its  hopeless  setting.  In  truth, 
one  literature  was  setting,  and  another  dawning. 

The  victory  of  the  foreign  taste  was  decisive  :  and  indeed 

1.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Ennius.  Ennius 
sneered  at  Naevius  for  writing  on  the  First  Punic  War  in  verses  such  as  the 
old  Italian  bards  used  before  Greek  literature  had  been  studied.  Now  the 
poem  of  Naevius  was  in  Saturnian  verse.  Is  it  possible  that  Ennius  could  have 
used  such  expressions,  if  the  Saturnian  verse  had  been  just  imported  from 
Greece  for  the  first  time? 

2.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Horace.  "When 
Greece,"  says  Horace,  ''introduced  her  arts  into  our  uncivilized  country,  those 
rugged  Saturnian  numbers  passed  away."  Would  Horace  have  said  this,  if  the 
Saturnian  numbers  had  been  imported  from  Greece  just  before  the  hexameter? 

3.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Festus  and  of  Aurelius 
Victor,  both  of  whom  positively  say  that  the  most  ancient  prophecies  attributed 
to  the  Fauns  were  in  Saturnian  verse. 

4.  Bentley's  assertion  is  opposed  to  the  testimony  of  Tcreutianus  Maurus,  to 
whom  he  has  himself  appealed.  Terentianus  Maurus  docs  indeed  say  that  the 
Saturnian  measure,  though  believed  by  the  Komans  from  a  very  early  period 
("credidit  vetustas")  to  be  of  Italian  invention,  was  really  borrowed  from  the 
Greeks.  But  Terentianus  Maurus  does  not  say  that  it  was  first  borrowed  by 
Naevius.  Nay,  the  expressions  used  by  Terentianus  Maurus  clearly  imply  the 
contrary :  for  how  could  the  llomans  have  believed,  from  a  very  early  period, 
that  this  measure  was  the  indigenous  production  of  Latium,  if  it  was  really 
brought  over  from  Greece  in  an  age  of  intelligence  and  liberal  curiosity,  in  the 
age  which  gave  birth  to  Ennius,  Plautus,  Cato  the  Censor,  and  other  distin- 
guished writers  ?  If  Bentley's  assertion  were  correct,  there  could  have  been 
no  more  doubt  at  Home  about  the  Greek  origin  of  the  Saturnian  measure  than 
about  the  Greek  origin  of  hexameters  or  Sapphics. 

*  Aulus  GcUius,  Noctes  Atticae,  i.  24. 


2i  rUKFACE. 

^vo  can  lianlly  blame  the  Ixomans  for  turning  away  with  con- 
tempt iVom  the  rude  hijs  whieli  liad  delighted  their  fathers, 
and  giving  their  whole  admiration  to  the  immortal  productions 
oi'  Cireece.  The  national  romances,  neglected  ])y  the  great 
and  the  refined  wliose  education  had  been  finished  at  Rhodes 
or  Athens,  continued,  it  may  be  supposed,  during  some  gene- 
rations, to  delight  the  vulgar.  While  Yirgil,  in  hexameters  of 
exquisite  modulation,  described  the  sports  of  rustics,  those 
rustics  were  still  singing  their  wild  Saturnian  ballads.*  It  is 
not  improbable  that,  at  the  time  when  Cicero  lamented  the 
irreparable  loss  of  the  poems  mentioned  by  Cato,  a  search 
among  the  nooks  of  the  Apennines,  as  active  as  the  search 
which  Sir  Walter  Scott  made  among  the  descendants  of  the 
mosstroopers  of  Liddesdale,  might  have  brought  to  light  many 
fine  remains  of  ancient  minstrelsy.  No  such  search  was  made. 
The  Latin  ballads  perished  for  ever.  Yet  discerning  critics 
have  thought  that  they  could  still  perceive  in  the  early  history 
of  Eome  numerous  fragments  of  this  lost  poetry,  as  the 
traveller  on  classic  ground  sometimes  finds,  built  into  the 
heavy  wall  of  a  fort  or  convent,  a  pillar  rich  with  acanthus 
leaves,  or  a  frieze  where  the  Amazons  and  Bacchanals  seem 

*  See  Servius,  in  Georg.  ii.  385. 


PREFACE.  25 

to  live.  The  theatres  and  temples  of  the  Greek  and  the 
Roman  were  degraded  into  the  quarries  of  the  Turk  and  the 
Goth.  Even  so  did  the  ancient  Saturnian  poetry  become  the 
quarry  in  which  a  crowd  of  orators  and  annalists  found  the 
materials  for  their  prose. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  tr^ce  the  process  by  which  the  old 
songs  were  transmuted  into  the  form  which  they  now  wear. 
Funeral  panegyric  and  chronicle  appear  to  have  been  the  in- 
termediate links  which  connected  the  lost  ballads  with  the 
histories  now  extant.  From  a  very  early  period  it  was  the 
usage  that  an  oration  should  be  pronounced  over  the  remains 
of  a  noble  Roman.  The  orator,  as  we  learn  from  Polybius, 
was  expected,  on  such  an  occasion,  to  recapitulate  all  the 
services  which  the  ancestors  of  the  deceased  had,  from  the 
earliest  time,  rendered  to  the  commonwealth.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  speaker  on  whom  this  duty  was  imposed, 
would  make  use  of  all  the  stories  suited  to  his  purpose  which 
were  to  be  found  in  the  popular  lays.  There  can  be  as  little 
doubt  that  the  family  of  an  eminent  man  would  preserve  a 
copy  of  the  speech  which  had  been  pronounced  over  his 
corpse.  The  compilers  of  the  early  chronicles  would  have 
recourse  to  these  speeches ;  and  the  great  historians  of  a  later 
period  would  have  recourse  to  the  chronicles. 


-^  I'KKFACK. 

It  ni;iy  l»o  worth  wliili'  to  select  a  particular  story,  and  to 
trace  its  prohaMe  prc^^iress  through  these  stages.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  migration  of  the  Fabian  house  to  Cremcra  is  one 
of  the  finest  of  the  many  fine  passages  -wliicli  lie  thick  in  the 
earlier  books  of  Livy.  The  Consul,  clad  in  his  military  garb, 
stands  in  the  vestibule  of  his  house,  marshalling  his  clan, 
three  hundred  and  six  fighting  men,  all  of  the  same  proud 
patrician  blood,  all  worthy  to  be  attended  by  the  fasces,  and 
to  command  the  legions.  A  sad  and  anxious  retinue  of 
friends  accompanies  the  adventurers  through  the  streets ;  but 
the  voice  of  lamentation  is  drowned  by  the  shouts  of  admiring 
thousands.  As  the  procession  passes  the  Capitol,  prayers  and 
vows  are  poured  forth,  but  in  vain.  The  devoted  band, 
leaving  Janus  on  the  right,  marches  to  its  doom  through  the 
Gate  of  Evil  Luck.  After  achieving  high  deeds  of  valor 
against  overwhelming  numbers,  all  perish  save  one  child,  the 
stock  from  which  the  great  Fabian  race  was  destined  again  to 
spring,  for  the  safety  and  glory  of  the  commonwealth.  That 
this  fine  romance,  the  details  of  which  are  so  full  of  poetical 
truth,  and  so  utterly  destitute  of  all  show  of  historical  truth, 
came  originally  from  some  lay  which  had  often  been  sung 
with  great  applause  at  banquets,  is  in  the  highest  degree  pro- 
bable.    Nor  is  it  difficult  to  imagine  a  mode  in  which  the 


PREFACE.  27 

transmission  might  have  taken  pLace.  The  celebrated  Quintus 
Fabius  Maximus,  who  died  abont  twenty  years  before  the 
First  Punic  War,  and  more  than  forty  years  before  Ennius 
was  born,  is  said  to  have  been  interred  with  extraordinary 
pomp.  In  the  eulogy  pronounced  over  his  body,  all  the  great 
exploits  of  his  ancestors  were  doubtless  recounted  and  exag- 
gerated. If  there  were  then  extant  songs  which  gave  a  vivid 
and  touching  description  of  an  event,  the  saddest  and  the 
most  glorious  in  the  long  history  of  the  Fabian  house,  nothing 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  the  panegyrist  should  borrow 
from  such  songs  their  finest  touches,  in  order  to  adorn  his 
speech.  A  few  generations  later  the  songs  would  perhaps 
be  forgotten,  or  remembered  only  by  shepherds  and  vine- 
dressers. But  the  speech  would  certahily  be  preserved  in 
the  archives  of  the  Fabian  nobles.  Fabius  Pictor  would  be 
well  acquainted  with  a  document  so  interesting  to  his  personal 
feelings,  and  would  insert  large  extracts  from  it  in  his  rude 
chronicle.  That  chronicle,  as  we  know,  was  the  oldest  to 
which  Livy  had  access.  Livy  would  at  a  glance  distinguish 
the  bold  strokes  of  the  forgotten  poet  from  the  dull  and  feeble 
narrative  by  which  they  were  surrounded,  would  retouch 
them  with  a  delicate  and  powerful  pencil,  and  would  make 
them  immortal. 


2S  rUKFACK. 

That  this  niii:ht  li;ip[)eii  at  lioiiie  can  scarcely  be  doubted; 
for  souiethinu-  verv  like  thi.s  has  happened  in  several  countries, 
anil,  among-  otliers.  in  our  own.  Perhaps  the  theory  of  Peri- 
zonius  cannot  he  better  illustrated  than  by  showing  that  what 
he  supposes  to  have  taken  place  in  ancient  times,  has,  beyond 
all  doubt,  taken  place  in  modern  times. 

'•History,"  says  Hume,  with  the  utmost  gravity,  "has  pre- 
served some  instances  of  Edgar's  amours,  from  which,  as  from 
a  specimen,  we  may  form  a  conjecture  of  the  rest."  He  then 
tells  very  agreeably  the  stories  of  Ellleda  and  Elfrida,  two 
stories  which  have  a  most  suspicious  air  of  romance,  and 
which,  indeed,  greatly  resemble,  in  their  general  character, 
some  of  the  legends  of  early  Rome.  He  cites,  as  his  authority 
for  these  two  tales,  the  chronicle  of  William  of  Malmesbury, 
who  lived  in  the  time  of  King  Stephen.  The  great  majority 
of  readers  suppose  that  the  device  by  which  Elfleda  was 
substituted  for  her  young  mistress,  the  artifice  by  which 
Athelwold  obtained  the  hand  of  Elfrida,  the  detection  of  that 
artifice,  the  hunting  party,  and  the  vengeance  of  the  amorous 
king,  are  things  about  which  there  is  no  more  doubt  than 
about  the  execution  of  Anne  Boleyn,  or  the  slitting  of  Sir 
John  Coventry's  nose.  But  when  we  turn  to  William  of 
Malmesbury,  we  find  that  Hume,  in  his  eagerness  to  relate 


PREFACE.  29 

these  pleasant  fables,  has  overlooked  one  very  important  cir- 
cumstance. William  does  indeed  tell  both  the  stories;  but 
he  gives  us  distinct  notice  that  he  does  not  warrant  their 
truth,  and  that  they  rest  on  no  better  authority  than  that  of 
ballads.* 

Such  is  the  way  in  which  these  two  well-known  tales  have 
been  handed  down.  They  originally  appeared  in  a  poetical 
form.  They  found  their  way  from  ballads  into  an  old  chro- 
nicle. The  ballads  perished;  the  chronicle  remained.  A  great 
historian,  some  centuries  after  the  ballads  had  been  altogether 
forgotten,  consulted  the  chronicle.  He  was  struck  by  the 
lively  coloring  of  these  ancient  fictions :  he  transferred  them 
to  his  pages;  and  thus  we  find  inserted  as  unquestionable 
facts,  in  a  narrative  which  is  likely  to  last  as  long  as  the 
English  tongue,  the  inventions  of  some  minstrel  whose  works 
were  probably  never  committed  to  writing,  whose  name  is 
buried  in  oblivion,  and  whose  dialect  has  become  obsolete.  It 
must,  then,  be  admitted  to  be  possible,  or  rather  highly  pro- 
bable, that  the  stories  of  Romulus  and  Remus,  and  of  the 
Horatii  and  Curiatii,  may  have  had  a  similar  origin. 

*  "Infamias  quas  post  dicam  magis  rcspcrsonmt  cantilcnnc."  Edgar  appears 
to  have  been  most  mercilessly  treated  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  ballads,  lie  was  the 
favorite  of  the  monks;  and  the  monks  and  minstrels  were  at  deadly  feud. 


«>0  riJEFAci:. 

Castilian  lite'ratiirr  ulll  fiirnisli  us  Avitli  another  parallel 
case.  Mariana,  the  elassiral  historian  of  Spain,  tells  the  story 
oi'  the  lll-starnMl  marriage  whieh  the  King  Don  Alonso  brought 
ahout  between  the  heirs  of  Carrion  and  the  two  daughters  of 
the  Citl.  The  Cid  bestowed  a  princely  dower  on  his  sons- 
in-law.  But  the  young  men  were  base  and  proud,  cow^ardly 
and  cruel.  They  were  tried  in  danger,  and  found  wanting. 
They  lied  before  the  Moors,  and  once,  "when  a  lion  broke 
out  of  his  den,  they  ran  and  crouched  in  an  unseemly  hiding- 
place.  They  knew  that  they  were  despised,  and  took  counsel 
how  they  might  be  avenged.  They  parted  from  their  father- 
in-law  with  many  signs  of  love,  and  set  forth  on  a  journey 
with  Doiia  Elvira  and  Doila  Sol.  In  a  solitary  place  the 
bridegrooms  seized  their  brides,  stripped  them,  scourged  them, 
and  departed,  leaving  them  for  dead.  But  one  of  the  house 
of  Bivar,  suspecting  foul  play,  had  followed  the  travellers  in 
disguise.  The  ladies  were  brought  back  safe  to  the  house  of 
their  father.  Complaint  w^as  made  to  the  king.  It  was  ad- 
judged by  the  Cortes  that  the  dower  given  by  the  Cid  should 
be  returned,  and  that  the  heirs  of  Carrion  together  with  one 
of  their  kindred,  should  do  battle  against  three  knights  of  the 
party  of  the  Cid.  The  guilty  youths  would  have  declined 
the  combat ;  but  all  their  shifts  were  vain.     The}'  were  van- 


PREFACE. 


31 


quished  in  the  lists,  and  for  ever  disgraced,  while  their  injured 
wives  were  sought  in  marriage  bj  great  princes.* 

Some  Spanish  writers  have  labored  to  show,  by  an  exami- 
nation of  dates  and  circumstances,  that  this  story  is  untrue. 
Such  confutation  was  surely  not  needed ;  for  the  narrative  is 
on  the  face  of  it  a  romance.  How  it  found  its  way  into 
Mariana's  history  is  quite  clear.  He  acknowledges  his  obli- 
gations to  the  ancient  chronicles;  and  had  doubtless  before 
him  the  "  Cronica  del  famoso  Cavallero  Cid  Ruy  Diez  Cam- 
peador,"  which  had  been  printed  as  early  as  the  year  1552. 
He  little  suspected  that  all  the  most  striking  passages  in  this 
chronicle  were  copied  from  a  poem  of  the  twelfth  centur}-,  a 
poem  of  which  the  language  and  versification  had  long  been 
obsolete,  but  which  glowed  with  no  common  portion  of  the 
fire  of  the  Iliad.  Yet  such  was  the  fact.  More  than  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  after  the  death  of  Mariana,  this  venerable 
ballad,  of  which  one  imperfect  copy  on  parchment,  four  hun- 
dred years  old,  had  been  preserved  at  Bivar,  was  for  the  first 
time  printed.  Then  it  was  found  that  every  interesting  cir- 
cumstance of  the  story  of  the  heirs  of  Carrion  was  derived  by 
the  eloquent  Jesuit  from  a  song  of  which  he  had  never  heard, 

*  Mariana,  lib.  x.  cap.  4. 


82  1-  H  K  F  A  C  K. 

and  wliich  was  coinposed  hy  a  minstrel  "svliose  very  name  had 
long  hoen  l"ori::otten.''' 

Sueli,  or  nearly  such,  appears  to  have  been  the  process  by 
which  the  lost  l)allad-poetry  of  Rome  was  transformed  into 
history.  To  reverse  that  process,  to  transform  some  portions 
of  early  Ivoman  history  back  into  the  poetry  out  of  which 
they  were  made,  is  the  object  of  this  work. 

In  the  following  poems  the  author  speaks,  not  in  his  own 
person,  but  in  the  persons  of  ancient  minstrels  who  know  only 
what  a  Roman  citizen,  born  three  or  four  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era,  may  be  supposed  to  have  known,  and  who 
are  in  nowise  above  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  their  age 
and  nation.  To  these  imaginary  poets  must  be  ascribed  some 
blunders  wdiicli  are  so  obvious  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  point 
them  out.  The  real  blunder  w^ould  have  been  to  represent 
these  old  poets  as  deeply  versed  in  general  history,  and 
studious  of  chronological  accuracy.  To  them  must  also  be 
attributed  the  illiberal  sneers  at  the  Greeks,  the  furious  party 
spirit,  the  contempt  for  the  arts  of  peace,  the  love  of  war 


*  See  the  account  which  Sanchez  gives  of  the  Bivar  manuscript  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  Coleccion  de  Pocsias  Castellanas  anteriores  al  Sigh  XV.  Part 
of  the  story  of  the  lords  of  Carrion,  in  the  poem  of  the  Cid,  has  been  translated 
by  Mr.  Frere  in  a  manner  above  all  praise. 


PREFACE.  33 

for  its  own  sake,  the  ungenerous  exultation  over  the  van- 
quished, which  the  reader  will  sometimes  observe.  To  portray 
a  Roman  of  the  age  of  Camillus  or  Curius  as  superior  to 
national  antipathies,  as  mourning  over  the  devastation  and 
slaughter  by  which  empires  and  triumphs  were  to  be  won,  as 
looking  on  human  suffering  with  the  sympathy  of  Howard, 
or  as  treating  conquered  enemies  with  the  delicacy  of  the 
Black  Prince,  would  be  to  violate  all  dramatic  propriety. 
The  old  Romans  had  some  great  virtues, — fortitude,  tempe- 
rance, veracity,  spirit  to  resist  oppression,  respect  for  legitimate 
authority,  fidelity  in  the  observing  of  contracts,  disinterested- 
ness, ardent  patriotism;  but  Christian  charity  and  chivalrous 
generosity  were  alike  unknown  to  them. 

It  would  have  been  obviously  improper  to  mimic  the  manner 
of  any  particular  age  or  country.  Something  has  been  bor- 
rowed, however,  from  our  own  old  ballads,  and  more  from 
Sir  "Walter  Scott,  the  great  restorer  of  our  ballad-poetry.  To 
the  Iliad  still  greater  obligations  arc  due;  and  those  obligations 
have  been  contracted  with  the  less  hesitation,  because  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  some  of  the  old  Latin  minstrels  really 
had  recourse  to  that  inexhaustible  store  of  poetical  images. 

It  would  have  been  easy  to  swell  this  little  volume  to  a  very 
considerable  bulk,  by  appending  notes  filled  with  quotations ; 


;U  rUK  FACK. 

hut  to  a  loanuHl  ivador  such  notes  are  not  necessary;  lor  an 
unlearned  reader  tliev  Mould  have  little  interest ;  and  the 
judirment  passed  hoth  hy  the  learned  and  hy  the  unlearned  on 
a  work  of  the  imagination  will  always  depend  much  more  on 
the  general  character  and  spirit  of  such  a  work  than  on  minute 
details. 


HO  RATI  us. 


H  OR  AT  I  us. 


There  can  be  little  doubt  that  among  those  parts  of  early 
Roman  history  which  had  a  poetical  origin  was  the  legend  of 
Horatius  Codes.  We  have  several  versions  of  the  story,  and 
these  versions  differ  from  each  other  in  points  of  no  small 
importance.  Polybius,  there  is  reason  to  beheve,  heard  the 
tale  recited  over  the  remains  of  some  Consul  or  Tnvtor  de- 
scended from  the  old  Iloratian  patricians;  for  he  introduces  it 
as  a  specimen  of  the  narratives  with  which  the  Romans  were 


88 


UOR  ATI  US. 


ill  tlio  li;il)it  o\'  t,Miil)i,'llisliiiii;-  thrir  runcral  onitoi'}'.  It  is 
iviuarkaMo  that,  at-rording  to  liiin,  Iloratius  defended  the 
hridgc  alone,  and  jH'iisiR'd  in  tlie  waters.  According  to  the 
chronicles  which  Li\ y  and  Dion^sius  followed,  Iloratius  had 
two  companions,  swam  safe  to  shore,  and  was  loaded  with 
honors  and  rewards. 

These  discrepancies  are  easily  exphiined.  Our  own  litera- 
ture, indeed,  will  furnish  an  exact  parallel  to  what  may  have 
taken  place  at  Kome.  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  memor}^ 
of  the  war  of  Porsena  was  preserved  by  compositions  much 
resembling  the  two  ballads  which  stand  first  in  the  Belies  of 
Ai tea  lit  EiKjJlsli  Poetry.  In  both  those  ballads  the  English, 
commanded  by  the  Perc}^,  fight  with  the  Scots,  commanded  by 
the  Douglas.  In  one  of  the  ballads,  the  Douglas  is  killed  by  a 
nameless  English  archer,  and  the  Percy  by  a  Scottish  spear- 
man :  ill  the  other,  the  Percy  slays  the  Douglas  in  single  com- 
bat, and  is  himself  made  prisoner.  In  the  former,  Sir  Hugh 
Montgomery  is  shot  through  the  heart  by  a  Northumbrian 
bowman :  in  the  latter  he  is  taken,  and  exchanged  for  the 
Percy.  Yet  both  the  ballads  relate  to  the  same  event,  and 
that  an  event  which  probably  took  place  within  the  memory 
of  persons  who  were  alive  when  both  the  ballads  were  made. 
One  of  the  minstrels  says : 


H  0  R  A  T I U  S.  39 

"  Old  men  that  knowen  the  grounde  well  yenoughe 
Call  it  the  battell  of  Otterburn : 
At  Otterburn  began  this  spurne 
Upon  a  monnyn  day. 
Ther  was  the  dougglite  Doglas  slean : 
The  Perse  never  went  away." 

The  other  poet  sums  up  the  event  in  the  following  lines : 

"Thys  fraye  bygan  at  Otterborne 
Bytwene  the  nyghte  and  the  day  : 
Ther  the  Dowglas  lost  hys  lyfe, 
And  the  Percy  was  lede  away." 

It  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that  there  were  two  old  Roman 
lays  about  the  defence  of  the  bridge ;  and  that,  while  the  story 
which  Livy  has  transmitted  to  us  was  preferred  by  the  multi- 
tude, the  other,  which  ascribed  the  whole  glory  to  Horatius 
alone,  may  have  been  the  favorite  with  the  Horatian  House. 

The  following  ballad  is  supposed  to  have  been  made  about  a 
hundred  and  twenty  years  after  the  w^ar  which  it  celebrates, 
and  just  before  the  taking  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls.  The 
author  seems  to  have  been  an  honest  citizen,  proud  of  the 
military  glory  of  his  countrj^,  sick  of  the  disputes  of  factions, 
and  much  given  to  pining  after  good  old  times  which  had 
never  really  existed.     The  allusion,  however,  to  the  partial 


40  IIOKATIUS. 

maiiiu'r  in  wh'u-li  \\\v  piililic  laiuls  were  allotted  conld  proceed 
ou\y  iVoin  a  plelieiau:  and  the  allusion  to  the  IVaudulent  sale 
o(  spoils  marks  the  date  of  the  poem,  and  shows  that  the  poet 
shared  in  the  general  discontent  with  which  the  proceedings  of 
Camilhis,  after  the  taking  of  Veii,  were  regarded. 

The  penultimate  syllahle  of  the  name  Porsena  has  heen 
shortened  in  spite  of  the  authority  of  Niebuhr,  who  pronounces, 
without  assigning  any  ground  for  his  opinion,  that  Martial  was 
guilty  of  a  decided  blunder  in  the  line, 

"  Hanc  spectarc  manum  Porsena  non  potuit." 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  any  modern  scholar,  what- 
ever his  attainments  may  be, — and  those  of  Niebuhr  were 
undoubtedly  immense, — can  venture  to  pronounce  that  Martial 
did  not  know  the  quantity  of  a  word  wdiicli  he  must  have 
uttered  and  heard  uttered  a  hundred  times  before  he  left  school. 
Niebuhr  seems  also  to  have  forgotten  that  Martial  has  fellow- 
culprits  to  keep  him  in  countenance.  Horace  has  committed 
the  same  decided  blunder;  for  he  gives  us,  as  a  pure  iambic 
line, 

"  Minacis  aut  Etrusca  Porsense  manus." 

Silius  Italicus  has  repeatedly  offended  in  the  same  way,  as 
when  he  says. 


HORATIUS.  -11 

"Cernitur  effugiens  ardentcm  Porsena  dextram:"' 
and  again, 

"Clusimim  vulgiis,  cum,  Porsena  magnc,  jubeLas." 

A  modern  writer  may  be  content  to  err  in  such  company. 

Niebuhr's  supposition,  that  each  of  the  three  defenders  of  the 
bridge  was  the  representative  of  one  of  the  three  patrician 
tribes,  is  both  ingenious  and  probable,  and  has  been  adopted  in 
the  following  poem. 


TAf^Q.VINK-r 


H  0  R  A  T  I  U  S. 


A    LAY    MADE   ABOUT   THE    TEAR   OF   THE   CITY    CCCLX. 


Lars  Porsexa  of  Clusium 

By  the  Nine  Gods  lie  swore 
That  the  great  house  of  Tarquin 

Should  suffer  wrong  no  more. 
By  the  Nine  Gods  he  swore  it, 

And  named  a  trysting  day, 
And  hade  his  messengers  ride  forth, 
East  and  Avest  and  south  and  north, 

To  summon  his  array. 


ii  lH)UATli:S. 


IT. 

East  and  west  ami  south  and  noitlf 

The  messengers  ride  fast, 
And  tower  and  town  and  cottage 

Have  heard  tlie  trumpet's  blast. 
Shame  on  the  false  Etruscan 

^Vho  lingers  in  his  home. 
When  Porsena  of  Clusium 

Is  on  the  march  for  Rome. 

III. 
The  horsemen  and  the  footmen 

Are  pouring  in  amain, 
From  many  a  stately  market-place  : 

From  many  a  fruitful  plain  ; 
From  many  a  lonely  hamlet. 

Which,  hid  by  beech  and  pine. 
Like  an  eagle's  nest,  hangs  on  the  crest 

Of  purple  xVpennine  ; 

IV. 

P'rom  lordly  A^olaterrre, 

Where  scowls  the  far-famed  hold 
Piled  by  the  hands  of  giants 

For  godlike  kings  of  old ; 


H  0  R  A  T I  U  S. 

From  seagirt  Populonia, 
Whose  sentinels  descry 

Sardinia's  snowy  mountain-tops 
Fringing  the  southern  sky ; 


45 


From  the  proud  mart  of  Pis?e, 

Queen  of  the  western  waves, 
Where  ride  Massilia's  triremes 

Heavy  with  fair-haired  slaves  ; 
From  where  sweet  Clanis  wanders 

Through  corn  and  vines  and  flowers ; 
From  where  Cortona  lifts  to  heaven 

Her  diadem  of  towers. 


VI. 

Tall  are  the  oaks  whose  acorns 

Drop  in  dark  Auser's  rill ; 
Fat  are  the  stags  that  champ  the  bough;- 

Of  the  Ciminian  hill ; 
Beyond  all  streams  Clitumnus 

Is  to  the  herdsman  dear ; 
Best  of  all  pools  the  foAvler  loves 

The  great  Volsinian  mere. 


40  II  OK  AT  I  US. 


VII. 
r>ut  now  no  stroke  of  woodinan 

Is  lioavd  hj  Auscr's  rill ; 
No  hunter  tracks  the  stag's  green  path 

Up  the  Ciminian  hill ; 
Unwatched  along  Clitumnus 

Grazes  the  milk-white  steer ; 
Unharmed  the  water-fowl  may  dip 

In  the  Volsinian  mere. 

Yin. 
The  harvests  of  Arretium, 

This  year,  old  men  shall  reap  ; 
This  year,  young  boys  in  Umbro 

Shall  plunge  the  struggling  sheep ; 
And  in  the  vats  of  Luna, 

This  year,  the  must  shall  foam 
Hound  the  white  feet  of  laughing  girls. 

Whose  sires  have  marched  to  Rome. 

IX. 

There  be  thirty  chosen  prophets. 

The  wisest  of  the  land, 
"Who  alway  by  Lars  Porsena 

Both  morn  and  evening  stand  : 


n  0  R  A  T  I  u  s. 


47 


Evening  and  morn  the  Thirty 
Have  turned  the  verses  o'er, 

Traced  from  the  right  on  linen  white 
By  mighty  seers  of  yore. 


And  with  one  voice  the  Thirty 
Have  their  glad  answer  given  ; 

"  Go  forth,  go  forth,  Lars  Porsena  ; 
Go  forth,  beloved  of  Heaven ; 


ts  llOKATirS. 

{\o,  :in<l  ri'tnni  in  ^lory 
To  C'liisiiiin's  roynl  (Ionic  ; 

Autl  Ikuii;  round  Nursci;i's  altars 
The  i^oklou  shields  of  Rome." 

XL 

And  now  hath  every  city 

Sent  up  her  tale  of  men  ; 
The  foot  are  fourscore  thousand, 

The  horse  are  thousands  ten. 
Before  the  gates  of  Sutrium 

Is  met  the  great  array. 
A  proud  man  was  Lars  Porsena 

Upon  the  trysting  day. 

XII. 
For  all  the  Etruscan  armies 

Were  ranged  beneath  his  eye, 
And  many  a  banished  Roman, 

And  many  a  stout  ally  ; 
And  with  a  mighty  following 

To  join  the  muster  came 
The  Tusculan  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name. 


HORATIUS. 


49 


XIII. 

But  by  the  yellow  Tiber 

Was  tumult  and  affrio;lit : 
From  all  the  spacious  champaign 

To  Rome  men  took  their  flight. 
A  mile  around  the  city, 

The  throng  stopped  up  the  ways ; 
A  fearful  sight  it  was  to  see 

Through  two  long  nights  and  days. 


)    k 


rir\Tin^Ms^j[::^j:^i 


'N  ^  \rs  I',!  /.I'/i, 


:.o 


IKMJ  ATIUS. 


XIV. 
For  iigi'il  folks  on  crutches, 

Ami  women  great  Avitli  child, 
And  mothers  sobbing  over  l)abcs 

That  clung  to  them  and  .'^niilcd, 
And  sick  men  borne  in  litters 

High  on  the  necks  of  slaves, 
And  troops  of  sun-l)unied  husbandmen 

With  reaping-hooks  and  staves. 

XV. 


And  droves  of  mules  and  asses 

Laden  with  skins  of  wine, 
And  endless  flocks  of  goats  and  sheep, 

And  endless  herds  of  kine, 
And  endless  trains  of  wagons 

That  creaked  beneath  the  weight 
Of  corn-sacks  and  of  household  goods, 

Choked  every  roaring  gate. 


XYI. 

NOAN,  fioin  tlic  rock  Tarpeian, 
Could  tlic  ATan  burghers  spy 

The  line  of  blazing  villages  ^ 

g]     Red  in  the  midnight  sky.  ^^ 

The  Fathcis  of  the  City, 
They  sat  all  night  and  day, 

For  every  hour  some  horseman  came   ^ 
With  tidings  of  dismay.        ^s^*»<;x 


no K  ATI  rs. 

XVIT. 
To  eastward  ami  to  westward 

Have  spread  tlie  Tuscan  bands  ; 
Nor  house,  nor  fenee,  nor  doveeote 

In  Crustunieriuni  stands. 
Yerbcnna  down  to  Ostia 

Ilatli  wasteil  all  the  jdain  ; 
Astur  liatli  stormed  Jaiiiculuiii, 

And  the  stout  guards  are  slain. 

XVIII. 

I  Avis,  in  all  the  Senate, 

There  was  no  heart  so  bold, 
But  sore  it  ached,  and  fast  it  beat, 

"When  that  ill  news  was  told. 
Forthwith  up  rose  the  Consul, 

Up  rose  the  Fathers  all ; 
In  haste  they  girded  up  their  gowns, 

And  hied  them  to  the  wall. 

XIX. 

They  held  a  council  standing 

Before  the  River-Gate ; 
Short  time  was  there,  ye  well  may  guess. 

For  musiiiir  or  debate. 


HORATIUS. 

Out  spake  the  Consul  roundly  : 

"  The  bridge  must  straight  go  down  ; 

For,  since  Janiculum  is  lost, 

Naught  else  can  save  the  town." 

XX, 

Just  then  a  scout  came  flying, 

All  wild  with  haste  and  fear  : 
"  To  arms  !  to  arms  !  Sir  Consul ; 

Lars  Porsena  is  here." 
On  the  low  hills  to  westward 

The  Consul  fixed  his  eye. 
And  saw  the  swarthy  storm  of  dust 

Rise  fast  along  the  sky. 

XXI. 

And  nearer  fast  and  nearer 

Doth  the  red  wliirlwind  come  ; 
And  louder  still,  and  still  more  loud 
From  underneath  that  rolling  cloud. 
Is  heard  the  trumpet's  war-note  proud, 

The  trampling,  and  the  hum. 
And  plainly  and  more  plainly 
Now  through  the  gloom  appears. 


53 


11  OK  ATI  r  s. 

Far  to  left  aiul  far  to  ri-rlit, 
III  hrokon  gloams  of  diuk-bluo  li^'lit, 
Tho  liiiig  array  of  lulim'ts  liriglit, 
The  long  array  of  sjicar?. 

xxir. 
Ami  plainly  and  more  i^ainly, 

Above  that  glimmering  line, 
Now  might  ye  see  tlic  banners 

Of  twelve  fair  cities  shine  ; 
But  the  banner  of  proud  Clusium 

"Was  highest  of  them  all, 
The  terror  of  the  Umbrian, 

The  terror  of  the  Gaul. 

XXIII. 

And  plainly  and  more  plainly 
Now  might  the  burghers  know, 

By  port  and  vest,  by  horse  and  crest, 
Each  warlike  Lucomo. 

There  Cilnius  of  Arretium 
On  his  fleet  roan  was  seen ; 

And  Astur  of  the  four-fold  shield, 

Girt  with  the  brand  none  else  may  wiebl. 


H  OR  ATI  us.  55 

Tolumnius  Avith  the  belt  of  gold, 
And  dark  Verbenna  from  the  hold 
By  reedy  Thrasymene. 

XXIV. 
Fast  by  the  royal  standard, 

O'erlooking  all  the  war, 
Lars  Porsena  of  Clusium 

Sat  in  his  ivory  car. 
By  the  right  wheel  rode  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name  ; 
And  by  the  left  false  Sextus, 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame. 

XXV. 

But  when  the  face  of  Sextus 

Was  seen  among  the  foes, 
A  yell  that  rent  the  firmament 

From  all  the  town  arose. 
On  the  house-tops  was  no  woman 

But  spat  towards  him  and  hissed  ; 
No  child  but  screamed  out  curses, 

And  shook  its  little  fist. 

XXVI. 

But  the  Consul's  brow  was  sad, 
And  the  Consul's  speech  was  low, 


II  OK  A  T  1  r  S. 

AikI  darkly  lookid  lu>  at  tlio  wall, 

And  darkly  at  tlu'  too. 
*'  Tiu'ir  van  \\\\\  be  npon  ns 

liofore  the  bridge  goes  down  ; 
And  if  tlicy  once  may  -win  tlio  bridge, 

"What  hope  to  save  the  town?" 

xxvir. 
Then  out  spake  brave  Horatius, 

The  Captain  of  the  gate  : 
"  To  every  man  upon  this  earth 

Death  cometh  soon  or  hite. 
And  how  can  man  die  better 

Tlian  facing  fearful  odds, 
For  the  ashes  of  his  fathers 

And  the  temples  of  his  Gods, 

XXVIII. 

"And  for  the  tender  mother 

"Who  dandled  him  to  rest, 
And  for  the  wife  who  nurses 

His  baby  at  her  breast, 
And  for  the  holy  maidens 

AVho  feed  the  eternal  flame, 
To  save  them  from  false  Sextus, 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame  ? 


HORATIUS. 


57 


XXIX. 

"  Hew  down  tlie  bridge,  Sir  Consul, 

With  all  tlic  speed  ye  may ; 
I,  with  two  more  to  help  me, 

Will  hold  the  foe  in  play. 
In  yon  strait  path  a  thousand 

May  Avell  be  stopped  by  three. 
Now  who  will  stand  on  either  hand, 

And  keep  the  bridge  with  me  ?" 


5S 


n  OH  All  I  s. 


XXX. 

Then  out  spake  Spurius  Lartius ; 

A  Kaiimian  proud  was  ho: 
'•  \.<\  1  will  staiul  at  tliv  right  liaml, 

Aiul  keep  the  bridge  Avith  thee." 
And  out  spake  strong  Ilcrniinius ; 

Of  Titian  ]>lood  was  he  : 
••  I  will  abide  on  thy  left  side. 

And  keep  the  bridge  with  thee." 


XXXI. 

"  Horatius,"  quoth  the  Consul, 
"  As  thou  sayest,  so  let  it  be." 

And  straight  against  that  great  array 
P'orth  went  the  dauntless  Three. 


HORATIUS.  59 


For  Romans  in  Rome's  quarrel 
Spared  neither  land  nor  gold, 

Nor  son  nor  wife,  nor  limb  nor  life, 
In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


XXXII. 

Then  none  was  for  a  party ; 

Then  all  were  for  the  state  : 
Then  the  great  man  helped  the  poor, 

And  the  poor  man  loved  the  great : 
Then  lands  were  fairly  portioned  : 

Then  spoils  were  fairly  sold  : 
The  Romans  were  like  brotliers 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


XXXIII. 

Now  Roman  is  to  Roman 

More  hateful  than  a  foe, 
And  the  Tribunes  beard  tlic  hi<di. 

And  tlie  Fathers  grind  the  low. 
As  we  wax  hot  in  faction, 

In  battle  we  wax  cold : 
Wherefore  men  fight  not  as  they  fought 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


GO 


HOKATII'S. 


1 1 

II- 


XXXIV. 

Now  wlulf  tlie  Tliri'o  >voro  tiglili'iiiiig 

Thoir  harness  on  their  backs, 
Tho  Consul  was  the  foremost  man 

To  take  in  hand  an  axe  : 
And  Fathers  mixed  with  Commons 

Seized  hatehet,  liar,  and  crow, 
An<l  smote  upon  the  planks  above, 

And  loosed  the  props  below. 


'tM' 


H  0  R  A  T I U  S. 


61 


XXXV. 

Meanwhile  the  Tuscan  army, 

Right  glorious  to  behold, 
Came  flashing  back  the  noonday  light, 
Rank  behind  rank,  like  surges  bright 

Of  a  broad  sea  of  gold. 
Four  hundred  trumpets  sounded 

A  peal  of  warlike  glee, 
As  that  great  host,  with  measured  tread, 
And  spears  advanced,  and  ensigns  spread. 
Rolled  slowly  towards  the  bridge's  head. 

Where  stood  the  dauntless  Three. 


IVJ 


IIOK  ATI  rs. 


"  Wt\ 


I' 


/^ 


H 


Ik, 


•T  ' 


XXXVI. 

Tlie  Three  stood  calm  and  silent 

And  looked  upon  the  foes, 
And  a  great  shout  of  laughter 

From  all  the  vanguard  rose : 
And  forth  three  chiefs  came  spurring 

Before  that  deep  array ; 
To  earth  they  sprang,  their  swords  they  drew 
And  lifted  high  their  shields,  and  flew 

To  v.in  tlip  n;uTo\v  wav ; 


IIORATIUS. 

XXXVII. 
Annus  from  green  Tifernum, 

Lord  of  the  Hill  of  Vines ; 
And  Seius,  whose  eight  hundred  slaves 

Sicken  in  Ilva's  mines  ; 
And  Pious,  long  to  Clusium 

Vassal  in  peace  and  war, 
Who  led  to  fight  his  Umbrian  powers 
From  that  gray  crag  where,  girt  Avith  towers, 
The  fortress  of  Nequinum  lowers 
O'er  the  pale  waves  of  Nar. 

XXXVIII. 

Stout  Lartius  hurled  down  Annus 

Into  the  stream  beneath : 
Herminius  struck  at  Seius, 

And  clove  him  to  the  teeth  : 
At  Picus  brave  Horatius 

Darted  one  fiery  thrust ; 
And  the  proud  Umbrian's  gilded  arms 

Clashed  in  the  bloody  dust. 

XXXIX. 

Then  Ocnus  of  Faleril 

Rushed  on  the  Roman  Three ; 


Gl  HOUATirS. 


Autl  l.ausulus  of  I  ij^«>, 

Tlu*  r«)vcr  of  tlic  sea  ; 
Ami  Aruns  of  Volsiniuin, 

Who  slow  the  great  -svihl  boar, 
The  great  wiKl  hoar  that  liad  his  den 
Amidst  the  reeds  of  Cosa's  fen, 
And  ^vasted  fichls,  and  shxughtcred  men, 

Along  Albinia's  shore. 

XL. 

Ilcrminius  smote  down  Aruns  : 

Lartius  laid  Ocnus  low  : 
Right  to  the  heart  of  Lausulus 

Horatius  sent  a  blow. 
"  Lie  there,"  he  cried,  "  fell  pirate  ! 

No  more,  aghast  and  pale, 
From  Ostia's  walls  the  crowd  shall  mark 
The  track  of  thy  destroying  bark. 
No  more  Campania's  hinds  shall  fly 
To  woods  and  caverns  when  they  spy 

Thy  thrice  accursed  sail." 

XLI. 

But  now  no  sound  of  laughter 
"Was  heard  among  the  foes. 


HO  RAT  I  us.  65 

A  wild  and  wrathful  clamor 

From  all  tlie  vanguard  rose. 
Six  spears'  lengths  from  the  entrance 

Halted  that  deep  array, 
And  for  a  space  no  man  came  forth 

To  win  the  narrow  way. 

XLII. 

But  hark  !  the  cry  is  Astur : 

And  lo  !  the  ranks  divide  ; 
And  the  great  Lord  of  Luna 

Comes  with  his  stately  stride. 
Upon  his  ample  shoulders 

Clangs  loud  the  fourfold  shield ; 
And  in  his  hand  he  shakes  the  brand 

Which  none  but  he  can  wield. 

XLIII. 

He  smiled  on  those  bold  Romans 

A  smile  serene  and  high ; 
He  eyed  the  flinching  Tuscans, 

And  scorn  was  in  his  eye. 
Quoth  he,  "  The  she-wolf's  litter 

Stand  savagely  at  bay ; 
But  will  ye  dare  to  follow, 

If  Astur  clears  the  way?" 


t»r»  lIDKATirS. 


XI. IV. 
Then,  ^^lli^lilll;  uj)  liis  hroatlswurd 
Willi  both  lijuids  to  tlir  height, 
IIo  rushcMl  airainst  lloratius. 

And  snioti'  vith  all  his  iiii;,'ht. 
"With  shield  and  hladc  lloratius 
Right  deftly  tunie(l  the  Mow, 
The  blow,  though  turned,  came  yet  too  nigh ; 
It  missed  his  helm,  l>ut  gashed  liis  tliigh  : 
The  Tuscans  raised  a  joyful  cry 
To  see  the  red  blood  flow. 

XLV. 
He  reeled,  and  on  Herminius 

He  leaned  one  breathing-space  ; 
Then,  like  a  wild  cat  mad  with  wounds. 

Sprang  right  at  Astur's  face. 
Through  teeth,  and  skull,  and  helmet. 

So  fierce  a  thrust  he  sped, 
The  good  sword  stood  a  hand-breadth  out 

Behind  the  Tuscan's  head. 

XLVI, 

And  the  great  Lord  of  Luna 
Fell  at  that  deadly  stroke, 


HO  RATI  us.  '>7 

As  falls  on  Mount  Alvernus 

A  tliunder-smitten  oak. 
Far  o'er  the  crashing  forest 

The  giant  arms  lie  spread ; 
And  the  pale  augurs,  muttering  low, 

Gaze  on  the  blasted  head. 

XLVII. 

On  Astur's  throat  Horatius 

Right  firmly  pressed  his  heel, 
And  thrice  and  four  times  tugged  amain, 

Ere  he  Avrenched  out  the  steel. 
"And  see,"  he  cried,  "the  welcome. 

Fair  guests,  that  waits  you  here  ! 
What  noble  Lucomo  comes  next. 

To  taste  our  Roman  cheer?" 

XLVIII. 

But  at  his  haughty  challenge 

A  sullen  murmur  ran, 
Mingled  of  wrath,  and  shame,  and  dread, 

Along  that  glittering  van. 
There  lacked  not  men  of  prowess. 

Nor  men  of  lordly  race  ; 
For  all  Etruria's  noblest 

Were  round  the  fatal  place. 


O**  llDKATll    S. 

XMX. 

l>ul  all  Etniria's  noblest 

Fi'lt  tliclr  hearts  sink  to  sec 
On  the  earth  the  hloody  corpses, 

In  the  path  the  dauntless  Three  : 
And,  from  the  ghastly  entrance 

"Where  these  hold  Romans  stood, 
All  shrank,  like  boys  "who  unaAvare, 
Ranjiinn:  the  woods  to  start  a  hare, 
Come  to  the  mouth  of  the  dark  lair 
"Where,  growling  Ioav,  a  fierce  old  bear 

Lies  amidst  bones  and  blood. 


L. 
"Was  none  who  would  be  foremost 

To  lead  such  dire  attack  ; 
But  those  behind  cried  "Forward  I" 

And  those  before  cried  "Back  !" 
And  backward  now  and  forward 

Wavers  the  deep  array  ; 
And  on  the  tossing  sea  of  steel, 
To  and  fro  the  standards  reel ; 
Ami  the  victorious  trumpet-peal 

Dies  fitfully  away. 


H  0  R  A  T I  U  S 


LI. 


Yet  one  man  for  one  moment 

Strode  out  before  the  crowd ; 
"Well  known  was  he  to  all  the  Three, 

And  they  gave  him  greeting  loud. 
"  Now  welcome,  welcome,  Sextus  ! 

Now  welcome  to  thy  home  ! 
Why  dost  thou  stay,  and  turn  away  ? 

Here  lies  the  road  to  Rome." 


LII. 


Thrice  looked  he  at  the  city ; 
Thrice  looked  he  at  the  dead  ; 


70  lloKATirS. 

AikI  tlirioo  raiiu"  nii  in  Wwy. 

Anil  thric'o  tunuil  lunk  in  ilrciul  : 
And,  white  with  fVar  an.l  hatred, 

Scowh'tl  at  the  narmw  way 
Where,  waUowinji  ii>  a  pciil  df  l)hi()il. 

The  liravest  Tuseans  lay. 

LIII. 
But  meanwhile  axe  and  lever 

Have  manfully  been  plied, 
And  now  the  bridge  hangs  tottering 

Above  the  boiling  tide. 
"  Come  back,  come  back,  Horatius  !" 

Loud  cried  the  Fathers  all. 
"  Back,  Lartius  !  back,  Hcrminius  1 

Back,  ere  the  ruin  fall !' 

LIV. 
Back  darted  Spurius  Lartius  ; 

Hcrminius  darted  back : 
And,  as  they  passed,  beneath  their  feet. 

They  felt  the  timbers  crack. 
But  Avhen  they  turned  their  faces, 

And  on  the  farther  shore 
Saw  brave  Horatius  stand  alone, 

They  would  have  crossed  once  more. 


'4 


HORATIUS.  71 


LV. 
But  with  a  crash  like  thunder 

Fell  every  loosened  beam, 
And,  like  a  dam,  the  mighty  ^Yreck 

Lay  right  atlnvart  the  stream : 
And  a  long  shout  of  triumjih 

Rose  from  the  walls  of  Rome, 
As  to  the  highest  turret-tops 

Was  splashed  the  yellow^  foam. 

LVI. 
And,  like  a  horse  unbroken 

When  first  he  feels  the  rein, 
The  furious  river  struggled  hard, 

And  tossed  his  tawny  mane, 
And  burst  the  curb,  and  bounded, 

Rejoicing  to  be  free. 
And  whirling  down,  in  fierce  career, 
Battlement,  and  plank,  and  pier, 

Rushed  headlong  to  the  sea. 

LVII. 

Alone  stood  brave  Horatius, 
But  constant  still  in  mind  ; 

Thrice  thirty  thousand  foes  before, 
And  the  broad  flood  behind. 


iioKATi  rs. 

'' Pown  with  him  I"  ciit'il  false  Scxtus, 
AVith  a  smik'  on  his  pale  iufc. 

"Mow  vichl  thco,"  cried  Lars  Porsena, 
"Now  yield  thee  to  our  grace." 

LVIII. 

Round  turned  he,  as  not  deigning 

Those  craven  ranks  to  see  ; 
Kaiight  spake  he  to  Lars  Porsena, 

To  Sextus  naught  spake  he : 
But  he  saw  on  Palatinus 

The  white  porch  of  his  home  ; 
And  he  spake  to  the  noble  river 

That  rolls  by  the  towers  of  Rome. 


LIX. 
"  Oh,  Tiber  !  Father  Tiber  ! 

To  whom  the  Romans  pray, 
A  Roman's  life,  a  Roman's  arms, 

Take  thou  in  charge  this  day !" 
So  he  spake,  and  speaking  sheathed 

The  good  sword  by  his  side, 
And  with  his  harness  on  his  back, 

Plunged  headlong  in  the  tide. 


nORATIUS. 


73 


iFif      No  sound  of  joy  or  sorrow 


s%:  Ji  >^ 

Was  heard  from  either  bank,        %^': jjJ 


vu^ia 


vX^^'C;  "■ 


':z-M^  1     But  friends  and  foes  in  dumb  surprise^ 
/"'.^'li  *    With  parted  lips  and  straining  eyes,    / 
i&  Stood  gazing  where  he  sank ; 


'^.\ 

^:^^ 


)  1 


71  iioKATirs. 

And  whvu  above  tho  sur;:i's 

Tliov  saw  his  crest  a|»pe!ir, 
All  Koine  sent  forth  a  niitlurons  ery. 
Anil  even  the  ranks  of  'ruseany 
Could  scarce  forbear  to  eheer. 

I 

'  But  fiercely  ran  the  current, 

I  Swollen  bifib  by  months  of  rain  : 

And  fast  his  blood  was  flowing  ; 

And  he  was  sore  in  pain. 
And  heavy  with  his  ai-nior. 

And  spent  with  changing  blows : 
Ami  oft  they  thought  him  sinking, 
But  still  again  he  rose. 

LXir. 
Xever,  I  ween,  did  swimmer, 

In  such  an  evil  case. 
Struggle  through  such  a  raging  flood 

Safe  to  the  landing-place  : 
But  his  limbs  were  borne  up  bravely 

By  the  brave  heart  within, 
And  our  good  Father  Tiber 

Bare  bravely  up  his  chin." 


II 0 11 A  T I U  S. 

LXIII. 
"  Curse  on  him !"  quotli  false  Sextus : 

"  Will  not  the  villain  drown  ? 
But  for  this  stay,  ere  close  of  day 

We  should  have  sacked  the  town  !" 
"  Heaven  help  him  !"  quoth  Lars  Porsena, 

"  And  bring  him  safe  to  shore  ; 
For  such  a  gallant  feat  of  arms 

Was  never  seen  before." 


LXIV. 

And  now  he  feels  the  bottom ; 

Now  on  dry  earth  he  stands ; 
Now  round  him  throng  the  Fathers 

To  press  his  gory  hands  ; 


'  "  Our  Ladyc  bare  upp  her  clilnne." 

Ballad  of  Childe  Waters. 

"  Never  heavier  man  and  horse 
Stemmed  a  midnight  torrent's  force ; 
*  i;-  *  -x-  * 

Vet,  tlirough  good  heart  and  Our  Lady's  grace, 

At  length  he  gained  the  landing-place." 

Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrd,  I. 


Tt«  IIOKATII   S. 


Ami  now,  with  sliouts  and  i'l:i|ntiii;r, 
Ami  noise  of  weeping  loud, 

lie  enters  through  the  Kiver-Giite, 
Borne  by  the  joyous  crowd. 

LXV. 

They  gave  him  of  the  corn-land 

That  was  of  public  right 
As  much  as  two  strong  oxen 

Could  plough  from  morn  till  night; 
And  they  made  a  molten  image, 

And  set  it  up  on  high, 
And  there  it  stands  unto  this  day 

To  witness  if  I  lie. 

LXVI. 

It  Stands  in  the  Comitium, 

Plain  for  all  folk  to  see  ; 
Iloratius  in  his  harness, 

Halting  upon  one  knee : 
And  underneath  is  written, 

In  letters  all  of  gold, 
IIow  valiantly  he  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


nORATIUS.  77 

LXYII. 
And  still  his  name  sounds  stirrin"; 

Unto  the  men  of  Rome, 
As  the  trumpet-blast  that  cries  to  them 

To  charge  the  Volscian  home  ; 
And  wives  still  pray  to  Juno 

Tor  boys  with  hearts  as  bold 
As  his  who  kept  the  bridge  so  well 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

LXVIII. 

And  in  the  nights  of  winter, 

When  the  cold  north  winds  blow. 
And  the  long  howling  of  the  wolves 

Is  heard  amidst  the  snow  ; 
When  round  the  lonely  cottage 

Roars  loud  the  tempest's  din. 
And  the  good  logs  of  Algidus 

Roar  louder  yet  within  ; 

LXIX. 

When  the  oldest  cask  is  opened, 

And  the  largest  lamp  is  lit ; 
When  the  chestnuts  glow  in  the  embers, 

And  the  kid  turns  on  the  spit ; 


7S 


II  OU  ATI  IS. 


When  younj;  ami  oltl  in  clirlr 

Ari>uml  till'  fuvlirantls  doso  ; 
When  the  ^irls  are  weaving  baskets, 
Ami  the  huls  are  shaping  bows; 

LXX. 

Wlion  the  gooilman  mends  his  avnior, 

Ami  trims  his  helmet's  plume  ; 
When  the  n;ooclwife's  shuttle  merrilv 

Goes  flashing  through  the  loom  ; 
With  weeping  an<l  with  laughter 

Still  is  the  story  told, 
I  low  well  Horatius  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 


C?>?*^' 


THE 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  REGILLUS. 


THE 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  KEGILLUS. 


The  following  poem  is  supposed  to  have  been  produced 
about  ninety  years  after  the  lay  of  Horatius.  Some  persons 
mentioned  in  the  lay  of  Horatius  make  their  appearance  again, 
and  some  appellations  and  epithets  used  in  the  lay  of  Horatius 
have  been  purposely  repeated :  for,  in  an  age  of  ballad-poetry, 
it  scarcely  ever  fails  to  happen,  that  certain  phrases  come  to 
be  appropriated  to  certain  men  and  things,  and  are  regularly 
applied  to  those  men  and  things  by  every  minstrel.  Thus 
we   find,  both   in   the   Homeric   poems   and   in   Hesiod,   /3i>] 

'HpaxXvisiv],     'jTSpixXuTCig    ^Aixcptyvrisig,     (Jiaxropog     'Ap^ei(povTr]j,      tifrxifv'kos     Grj^y], 

11 


^-  11  ATT  I,  K     OF     Tin:     I,  A  K  K     lilKilLLUS. 

'VXinn  iu>k'  v»ofwio.  Thus,  too,  in  our  own  national  ^sonj^s, 
IXiuglas  is  almost  alwavs  tlie  doughty  J)ouglas:  England 
is  merry  Knirlaml :  all  the  gold  is  red  ;  and  all  tlir  ladies  are 
gay. 

Thr  piincipal  distinction  between  the  lay  of  Iloratius  and 
the  lay  o{  the  Lake  Regilhis  is  that  the  former  is  meant  to 
Ih?  purely  Roman,  while  the  latter,  though  national  in  its 
general  spirit,  has  a  slight  tincture  of  Greek  learning  and  of 
Greek  superstition.  The  story  of  the  Tarquins,  as  it  has  come 
down  to  us,  appears  to  have  been  compiled  from  the  works 
of  several  popular  poets;  and  one,  at  least,  of  those  poets 
appears  to  have  visited  the  Greek  colonies  in  Italy,  if  not 
Greece  itself,  and  to  have  had  some  acquaintance  with  the 
works  of  Homer  and  Herodotus.  Many  of  the  most  striking 
adventures  of  the  house  of  Tarquin,  before  Lucretia  makes 
her  appearance,  have  a  Greek  character.  The  Tarquins  them- 
selves are  represented  as  Corinthian  nobles  of  the  great  house 
of  the  Bacchiada?,  driven  from  their  country  by  the  tyranny  of 
that  Cypselus,  the  tale  of  whose  strange  escape  Herodotus  has 
related  with  incomparable  simplicity  and  liveliness.*  Livy 
and  Dionysius  tell  us  that,  when  Tarquin  the  proud  was  asked 

*  Herodotus,  v.  92.     Livj,  i.  34.     Dionysius,  iii.  4G. 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  REGILLUS. 


83 


what  was  the  best  mode  of  governing  a  conquered  city,  he 
rephed  only  by  beating  down  with  his  staff,  all  the  tallest 
poppies  in  his  garden.*  This  is  exactly  what  Herodotus,  in 
the  passage  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  relates 
of  the  counsel  given  to  Periander,  the  son  of  Cypselus.  The 
stratagem  by  which  the  town  of  Gabii  is  brought  under  the 
power  of  the  Tarquins  is,  again,  obviously  copied  from  Hero- 
dotus.f     The  embassy  of  the  young  Tarquins  to  the  oracle  at 


Delphi,  is  just  such  a  story  as  w^ould  be  told  by  a  poet  whose 
head  was  full  of  the  Greek  mythology;  and  the  ambiguous 


*  Livy,  i.  54.     Dionysius,  iv.  56,  f  Herodotus,  iii.  154.     Livy,  i.  53. 


<4 


HATTLK     OK     Tin:     I.  A  K  K     IM'T.  il.Ll'S. 


answer  ivtiinuHl  l>y  Apollo  is  in  the  oxart  stvlc  of  tlio  \m)- 
phecios  Avhich,  accordinir  to  IKioilotus,  lured  Croesus  to  de- 
struction. Then  the  elianicter  of  the  narrative  changes. 
From  the  first  mention  of  Lueretia  to  the  retreat  of  Porscna 
notliing  seems  to  be  borrowed  from  foreign  sources.  The 
villany  of  Soxtus.  the  suicide  of  his  victim,  the  revolution,  the 
death  of  the  sons  of  Brutus,  the  defence  of  the  bridge.  Mucins 


burning  his  hand,'='  Cloelia   swimming   through  Tiber,  seem 


•  M.  de  Pouilly  attempted,  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  to  prove  that 
the  story  of  Mucius  wxs  of  Greek  origin  j  but  he  was  signally  confuted  by  the 
Abbe  Sallicr.     See  the  Mtmoircs  de  V Academic  des  Inscriptions,  vi.  27,  66. 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  EEGILLUS. 


85 


to  be  all  strictly  Koman.  But  when  we  have  done  with  the 
Tuscan  war,  and  enter  upon  the  war  Avith  the  Latines,  we 
are  again  struck  by  the  Greek  air  of  the  story.  The  Battle  of 
the  Lake  Regillus  is  in  all  respects  a  Homeric  battle,  except 
that  the  combatants  ride  astride  on  their  horses  instead  of 
driving  chariots.  The  mass  of  fighting  men  is  hardly  men- 
tioned. The  leaders  single  each  other  out  and  engage  hand 
to  hand.  The  great  object  of  the  warriors  on  both  sides  is,  as 
in  the  Iliad,  to  obtain  possession  of  the  spoils  and  bodies  of 
the  slain;  and  several  circumstances  are  related  which  forcibly 
remind  us  of  the  great  slaughter  round  the  corpses  of  Sarpedon 
and  Patroclus. 


HATTi.r    t>F    Till;    I.  A  K  r.    i;  Kc  I  i.i.us. 


But  there  is  one  circumstance  which  deserves  especial  notice. 
Both  the  war  of  Troy  and  the  war  of  Regillus  were  caused  by 
the  licentious  passions  of  young  princes,  who  were  therefore 
peculiarly  bound  not  to  be  sparing  of  their  own  persons  in 
the  day  of  battle.  Now  the  conduct  of  Sextus  at  Regillus. 
as  descriljed  by  Livy,  so  exactly  resembles  that  of  Paris,  as 
described  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  book  of  the  Iliad,  that 
it  is  difficult  to  believe  the  resemblance  accidental.  Paris 
appears  before  the  Trojan  ranks,  defying  the  bravest  Greek  to 
encounter  him  : 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  87 

'Ap^eiwv  'TTpoxoeXi^ero  oravrotg  a^itfTouc, 

ccvri§iov  iJ.cc^iTxd^xt  iv  xIvyj  ^rjioT^ri. 

Livy  introduces  Sextus  in  a  similar  manner :  "  Ferocem 
juvenem  Tarquinium,  ostentantem  se  in  prima  exsulum  acie." 
Menelaus  rushes  to  meet  Paris.  A  Roman  noble,  eager  for 
vengeance,  spurs  his  horse  towards  Sextus.  Both  the  guilty 
princes  are  instantly  terror-stricken  : 

T«v  S'  ag  ouv  evo'i^o'sv  'AX;'|£<v5poj  ^coZi5y\ig 
a-]^  o'  STup'jiv  sli  sdvog  sj(««i^£'ro  xTjp'  dXssivwv. 

"  Tarquinius,"  says  Livy,  *•  retro  in  agmen  suorum  infenso 
cessit  hosti."  If  this  be  a  fortuitous  coincidence,  it  is  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  in  literature. 

In  the  following  poem,  therefore,  images  and  incidents  have 
been  borrowed,  not  merely  without  scruple,  but  on  principle, 
from  the  incomparable  battle-pieces  of  Homer. 

The  popular  belief  at  Rome,  from  an  early  period,  seems  to 
have  been  that  the  event  of  the  great  day  of  Regillus,  was 
decided  by  supernatural  agency.  Castor  and  Pollux,  it  was 
said,  had  fought,  armed  and  mounted,  at  the  head  of  the 
legions  of  the  commonwealth,  and  had  afterwards  carried  the 


W  liATTI.K     (»F     Tin:     I.AKi;     KKCMLLUS. 

news  of  the  vietorv  \vitli  iiiereilible  speed  to  the  cltv.  'I'lie 
well  in  tlie  Forum  ;it  wliieli  tliev  had  aliiihted  was  [jointed  out. 
Near  the  well  rose  thiir  iineient  temple.  A  great  lestival  was 
krpt  to  their  honor  on  the  Ides  of  (hiintilis,  supposed  to  be 
the  anniversary  of  the  l)attle;  and  on  that  day  sumptuous 
saerifices  were  ollercd  to  them  at  the  public  charge.  One  spot 
on  the  margin  of  Lake  Regillus  was  regarded  during  many 
ages  with  superstitious  awe.  A  mark  resembling  in  shape  a 
horse's  hoof,  was  discernible  in  the  volcaiiic  rock ;  and  this 
mark  was  believed  to  have  been  made  hy  one  of  the  celestial 
chargers. 

How  the  legend  originated  cannot  now  be  ascertained : 
but  we  may  easily  imagine  several  ways  in  which  it  might 
have  originated :  nor  is  it  at  all  necessary  to  suppose,  with 
.Tulius  Frontinus,  tliat  two  }oung  men  were  dressed  up  by 
the  Dictator  to  personate  the  sons  of  Leda.  It  is  probable 
that  Livy  is  correct  when  he  says  that  the  Roman  general, 
in  the  hour  of  peril,  vowed  a  temple  to  Castor.  If  so, 
nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  the  multitude  should 
ascribe  the  victory  to  the  Aivor  of  the  Twin  Gods.  When 
such  was  the  prevailing  sentiment,  any  man  who  chose  to 
declare  that,  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion  and  slaughter,  he 
had  seen  two  godlike  forms  on  white  horses  scattering  the 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS  89 

Latines  would  find  ready  credence.  We  know,  indeed,  that, 
in  modern  times,  a  very  similar  story  actually  found  credence 
among  a  people  much  more  civilized  than  the  Romans  of  the 
fifth  century  before  Christ.  A  chaplain  of  Cortes,  writing 
about  thirty  years  after  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  in  an  age 
of  printing-presses,  libraries,  universities,  scholars,  logicians, 
jurists,  and  statesmen,  had  the  face  to  assert  that,  in  one 
engagement  against  the  Indians,  Saint  James  had  appeared  on 
a  gray  horse  at  the  head  of  the  Castilian  adventurers.  Many 
of  those  adventurers  were  living  Avhen  this  lie  was  printed. 
One  of  them,  honest  Bernal  Diaz,  wrote  an  account  of  the 
expedition.  He  had  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses  against 
the  legend  ;  but  he  seems  to  have  distrusted  even  the  evidence 
of  his  own  senses.  He  says  that  he  was  in  the  battle,  and 
that  he  saw  a  gray  horse  with  a  man  on  his  back,  but  that  the 
man  was,  to  his  thinking,  Francesco  de  Morla,  and  not  the 
ever-blessed  apostle  Saint  James.  "  Nevertheless,"  Bernal 
adds,  "  it  may  be  that  the  person  on  the  gray  horse  was  the 
glorious  apostle  Saint  James,  and  that  I,  sinner  that  I  am, 
was  unworthy  to  see  him."  The  Romans  of  the  age  of  Cincin- 
natus  were  probably  quite  as  credulous  as  the  Spanish  sub- 
jects of  Charles  the  Fifth.  It  is  therefore  conceivable  that  the 
appearance  of  Castor  and  Pollux  may  have  become  an  article 

12 


00  11  A  IT  I.  K    OF    Till:    1.  A  K  i:    K  re  I  LI.  US. 

of  laitli  lu'lort-  tlu'  ^ciu'fatiim  N\liirli  liad  loiiL^Iit  at  Ilc^illiis 
liiul  passed  away.  Nor  coultl  anUli'mu"  1h'  inori*  natural  than 
that  the  pix^ts  ol'tlie  next  aiie  should  ciuhcllish  this  storv,  ami 
make  tlie  eele>tial  ImrsonuMi  ])vdY  [\\v  ti(lill_L^•>!  ot"  victoiy  to  IJome. 

Manv  years  al'trr  thr  toiuple  of  the  Twin  (lods  had  heen 
huilt  in  the  Forum,  an  im})ortant  athlition  was  made  to  the 
eeremonial  h\"  whieh  the  state  annually  testified  its  iiratitude 
I'or  their  protection.  Quintus  Fabiiis  and  Publius  Decius 
were  elected  Censors  at  a  momentous  crisis.  It  had  become 
absolutely  necessary  that  the  classification  ol'  tlie  citizens 
should  lie  revised.  On  that  classification  depended  the  dis- 
tribution of  political  power.  Partj-spirit  ran  high  ;  and  the 
republic  seemed  to  be  in  danger  of  fiilling  under  the  dominion 
either  of  a  narrow  oligarchy  or  of  an  ignorant  and  headstrong 
rabble.  Under  such  circumstances  the  most  illustrious  pa- 
trician and  the  most  illustrious  plebeian  of  the  age  were 
intrusted  with  the  office  of  arbitrating  between  the  angry 
factions ;  and  they  performed  their  arduous  task  to  the  satis- 
faction of  all  honest  and  reasonable  men. 

One  of  their  reforms  was  a  remodelling  of  the  equestrian 
order ;  and,  having  effected  this  reform,  they  determined  to 
give  to  their  work  a  sanction  derived  from  religion.  In  the 
chivalrous  societies   of   modern   times,  societies  which   have 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  91 

much  more  than  may  at  first  siglit  appear  in  common  witli 
the  equestrian  order  of  Rome,  it  has  heen  usual  to  invoke 
the  special  protection  of  some  Saint,  and  to  observe  his  day 
with  peculiar  solemnity.  Thus  the  Companions  of  the  Garter 
wear  the  image  of  Saint  George  depending  from  their  collars, 
and  meet,  on  great  occasions,  in  Saint  George's  Chapel.  Thus, 
when  Louis  the  Fourteenth  instituted  a  new  order  of  chivalry 
for  the  rewarding  of  military  merit,  he  commended  it  to  the 
favor  of  his  own  glorified  ancestor  and  patron,  and  decreed 
that  all  the  members  of  the  fraternity  should  meet  at  the 
royal  palace  on  the  Feast  of  Saint  Louis,  should  attend  the 
king  to  chapel,  should  hear  mass,  and  should  subsequently  hold 
their  great  annual  assembly.  There  is  a  considerable  resem- 
blance between  this  rule  of  the  order  of  Saint  Louis  and  the 
rule  which  Fabius  and  Decius  made  respecting  the  Roman 
knights.  It  was  ordained  that  a  grand  muster  and  inspection 
of  the  equestrian  body  should  be  part  of  the  ceremonial  per- 
formed, on  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Regillus,  in  honor 
of  Castor  and  Pollux,  the  two  equestrain  Gods.  All  the 
knights,  clad  in  purple  and  crowned  with  olive,  were  to  meet 
at  a  temple  of  Mars  in  the  suburbs.  Thence  they  were  to 
ride  in  state  to  the  Forum,  where  the  temple  of  the  Twins 
stood.     This  pageant  was,  during  several  centuries,  considered 


i*-  HATTLK    OK    TlIK     l.AKK    K  i:  C  1  1. 1.  r  S. 

as  one  ot*  tho  most  splnulid  f<i_i:lits  nl"  Komc.  In  llir  liiiu' of 
nionvsius  the  oavjiUMtlc  sdiiu'tiiiu's  consistt'd  of  li\t'  thousand 
horsemen,  all  iutsous  oI"  I'air  repute  and  easy  lortunc."'' 

Thei*e  can  be  no  doulit  that  the  Censors  who  instituted  this 
auirust  ceremony  acted  in  concert  with  the  Pontills  to  whom, 
bv  the  constitution  of  lu)nu\  the  superintendence  of  the 
public  worship  belonged  ;  and  it  is  prol)al>le  tliat  those  hiuh 
ivligious  functionaries  were,  as  nsual,  fortunate  enou<ili  to  Ihid 
in  their  books  or  traditions  some  warrant  for  the  innovation. 

The  Ibllowing  poem  is  supposed  to  have  been  made  for  this 
great  occasion.  Songs,  we  know,  were  chanted  at  the  reli- 
gious festivals  of  Rome  from  an  early  period,  indeed  from  so 
early  a  period  that  some  of  the  sacred  verses  were  popuLarly 
ascrilxxl  to  Numa.  and  were  utterly-  unintelligible  in  the  age 
of  Augustus.  In  the  Second  Punic  War  a  great  feast  was 
held  in  hon(n'  of  Juno,  and  a  song  was  sung  in  her  praise. 
This  song  was  extant  when  Livy  wrote  ;  and,  though  ex- 
ceedingly rugged  and  uncouth,  seemed  to  him  not  wholly 
'destitute  of  merit.-j-     A  song,  as  we  learn  from  IIorace,t  was 

*  See  Li v}-,  ix.  4G.  Yal.  Max.  ii.  2.  Aurel.  Vict.  DeViris  Illustribus,  32. 
Dionysius,  vi.  13.  Pliu.  Hist.  Nat.  xv.  5.  Sec  also  the  singularly  ingenious 
chapter  in  Xiebuhr's  posthumous  volume,  Die  Censur  des  Q.  Fubius  and  P. 

I)rriuit. 

t  Livv,  xxvii    37.  +  Hor.  (,'arnien  Secularc. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  93 

part  of  the  established  ritual  at  the  great  Secular  Jubilee. 
It  is  therefore  likely  that  the  Censors  and  Pontiffs,  when  they 
had  resolved  to  add  a  grand  procession  of  knights  to  the 
other  solemnities  annually  performed  on  the  Ides  of  Quintilis, 
would  call  in  the  aid  of  a  poet.  Such  a  poet  would  naturally 
take  for  his  subject  the  Battle  of  Eegillus,  the  appearance  of 
the  Twin  Gods,  and  the  institution  of  their  festival.  He 
would  find  abundant  materials  in  the  ballads  of  his  prede- 
cessors; and  he  would  make  free  use  of  the  scanty  stock  of 
Greek  learning  which  he  had  himself  acquired.  He  would 
probably  introduce  some  wise  and  holy  Pontiff  enjoining  the 
magnificent  ceremonial  which,  after  a  long  interval,  had  at 
length  been  adopted.  If  the  poem  succeeded,  many  persons 
would  commit  it  to  memory.  Parts  of  it  would  be  sung  to 
the  pipe  at  banquets.  It  would  be  peculiarly  interesting  to 
the  great  Posthumian  House,  which  numbered  among  its 
many  images  that  of  the  Dictator  Aulus,  the  hero  of  Regillus. 
The  orator  who,  in  the  following  generation,  pronounced  the 
funeral  panegyric  over  the  remains  of  Lucius  Posthumius 
Megellus,  thrice  Consul,  would  borrow  largely  from  the  lay ; 
and  thus  some  passages,  much  disfigured,  would  probably 
find  their  way  into  the  chronicles  which  were  afterwards 
in  the  hands  of  Dionysius  and  Livy. 


04 


I5ATTI.K    OF    Till"     1.  A  K  r.     i;  i:  H  I  I,  I.  u  s. 


Antiquarios  ililli-r  widclv  as  to  tlu'  sitiiatidii  of  tlu-  licM  of 
battle.  The  o})iiuiiii  of  tliosc  who  suppose  (hat  (he  aiiiiics 
mot  near  ConuifeHe,  hrtweeii  Frascati  and  the  Monte  l*or/io, 
is  at  least  plausible,  and  has  l)een  followeil  in  tlie  poem. 

As  to  the  details  of  the  battle,  it  has  not  been  thought 
desirable  to  adhere  minutely  to  the  accounts  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  Those  accounts,  indeed,  differ  widely  from  each 
other,  and.  in  all  probabilit}',  difler  as  widely  from  the  ancient 
poem  from  which  they  were  originally  derived. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  various  imitations  of  the 
Iliad,  which  have  been  purposely  introduced. 


THE 


BATTLE   OP   THE  LAKE   REGILLUS. 

A    LAY    SUNG    AT    THE    FEAST    OF    CASTOR    AND    POLLUX    ON    THE    IDES    OF    QUINTILIS, 
IN    THE    TEAR    OF    THE    CITY    CCCCLI. 


I. 

IIo,  trumpets,  sound  a  war-note  ! 

Ho,  lictors,  clear  the  way  ! 
The  Knights  will  ride,  in  all  their  pride. 

Along  the  streets  to-day. 
To-day  the  doors  and  windows 

Arc  hung  with  garlands  all, 
From  Castor  in  the  Forum, 

To  Mars  without  the  wall. 


1*^  HAITI. K   or    Till;    I  A  k  i:    Kiicii.i-rs, 

I'laili  Kiiiixlit  is  roltotl  ill  ]>iir|»l(>. 

With  olive  each  is  fro\\iicil ; 
A  gallant  war-liorsc  under  cmcIi 

Paws  liati^litily  tlu'  ;:ioiiiiil. 
^Vllile  Hows  the  Ycllnw  lliver, 

"While  stands  the  Sailed  Hill, 
The  proud  Ides  of  (.^uiiitilis 

Shall  have  such  honor  still. 
Gay  are  the  Martian  Kalends  : 

Decemher's  Nones  are  gay  : 
But  the  proud  Ides,  ■when  the  squadron  rides, 

Shall  be  Rome's  whitest  day. 


II. 

Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

AVe  keep  this  solemn  feast. 
Swift,  swift,  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Came  spurring  from  the  east. 
They  came  o'er  wild  Parthcnius 

Tossing  in  waves  of  pine, 
O'er  Cirrha's  dome,  o'er  Adria's  foam, 

O'er  purple  Apennine, 
From  where  with  flutes  and  dances 

Their  ancient  mansion  rings. 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE     REGILLUS.  97 

In  lordly  Lacedaemon, 

The  City  of  two  kings, 
To  where,  by  Lake  Regillus, 

Under  the  Porcian  height, 
All  in  the  lands  of  Tusculum, 

Was  fought  the  glorious  fight. 


iir. 

Now  on  the  place  of  slaughter 

Are  cots  and  sheepfolds  seen, 
And  rows  of  vines,  and  fields  of  wheat, 

And  apple  orchards  green: 
The  swine  crush  the  big  acorns 

That  fall  from  Corne's  oaks. 
Upon  the  turf  by  the  Fair  Fount 

The  reaper's  pottage  smokes. 
The  fisher  baits  his  angle  ; 

The  hunter  twangs  his  bow  ; 
Little  they  think  on  those  strong  limbs 

That  moulder  deep  below. 
Little  they  think  how  sternly 

That  day  the  trumpets  pealed  ; 
How  in  the  slippery  swamp  of  blood 

Warrior  and  war-horse  reeled ; 


08  BATTI.K     OF     Tin:     lAKi:     KI.CILLUS. 

How  wolvrs  caiiic  uiui  iicirc  -iuli.ji. 

And  crows  on  eager  wings, 
To  tear  the  flesh  of  captains, 

Anil  peck  the  eyes  of  kings ; 
How  thick  the  dead  hiy  scattered 

Under  the  Porcian  height ; 
How  through  the  gates  of  Tusculum 

Raved  the  wihl  stream  of  flight ; 
And  how  the  Lake  Regillus 

Bubbled  with  crimson  foam, 
"What  time  the  Thirty  Cities 

Came  forth  to  war  with  Rome. 


IV. 

But,  Roman,  when  thou  standest 

Upon  that  holy  ground, 
Look  thou  with  heed  on  the  dark  rock 

That  girds  the  dark  lake  round. 
So  shalt  thou  see  a  hoof-mark 

Stamped  deep  into  the  flint : 
It  was  no  hoof  of  mortal  steed 

That  made  so  strange  a  dint : 
There  to  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Vow  thou  thy  vows,  and  pray 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  99 

That  tliej,  in  tempest  and  in  fight, 
Will  keep  thy  head  alway. 


V. 

Since  last  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Of  mortal  eyes  were  seen, 
Have  years  gone  by  an  hundred 

And  fourscore  and  thirteen. 
That  summer  a  Virginius 

Was  Consul  first  in  place  ; 
The  second  was  stout  Aulus, 

Of  the  Posthumian  race. 
The  Herald  of  the  Latines 

From  Gabii  came  in  state : 
The  Herald  of  the  Latines 

Passed  through  Rome's  Eastern  Gate : 
The  Herald  of  the  Latines 

Did  in  our  Forum  stand ; 
And  there  he  did  his  office, 

A  sceptre  in  his  hand. 


vr. 

"  Hear,  Senators  and  people 
Of  tlie  good  town  of  Rome 


100 


BATTI,  K    OK     Tin:     I.AKK     i;  IKi  1  I.  L  f  S. 


The  Thirty  Cities  charge  you 
To  bring  the  Tarquins  home : 

And  if  ye  still  be  stubborn, 
To  work  the  Tarquins  wrong, 

The  Thirty  Cities  warn  you, 

Look  that  your  walls  be  strong." 


!5>^- 


^     4 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 


101 


VII. 
Then  spake  the  Consul  Aulus, 

He  spake  a  bitter  jest : 
"  Once  the  jays  sent  a  message 

Unto  the  eagle's  nest : — 
Now  yield  thou  up  thine  eyrie 

Unto  the  carrion-kite, 
Or  come  forth  valiantly,  and  face 

The  jays  in  deadly  fight. — 
Forth  looked  in  wrath  the  eagle  ; 

And  carrion-kite  and  jay. 
Soon  as  they  saw  his  beak  and  claw. 

Fled  screaming  far  away." 


10-2  HAITI. K    OF     tin:     l.AKF.     KKCII.LUS. 

viir. 

Tlu"  Ilcral.l  of  the  L:itiiirs 

llalli  liinl  liini  Imck  in  state  : 
Tlif  FatluTs  of  tlio  City 

Are  nu't  m  liigli  doltate. 
Then  spake  the  ekler  Consul, 

An  ancient  man  and  wise, 
"  Now  hearken,  Conscript  Fathers, 

To  that  -wliieh  I  advise. 
In  seasons  of  great  peril 

'Tis  good  that  one  bear  sway ; 
Then  choose  we  a  Dictator, 

"Whom  all  men  shall  obey. 
Camerium  knows  how  deeply 

The  SAvord  of  Aulus  bites ; 
And  all  our  city  calls  him 

The  man  of  seventy  fights. 
Then  let  him  be  Dictator 

For  six  months  and  no  more, 
And  have  a  Master  of  the  Knights, 

And  axes  twenty-four." 

IX. 

So  Aulus  was  Dictator, 
The  man  of  seventy  fights  ; 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     EEGILLUS.  103 

He  made  J^butius  Elva 

His  Master  of  the  Knights. 
On  the  third  morn  thereafter, 

At  dawning  of  the  da  j, 
Did  Aulus  and  iEbutius 

Set  forth  with  their  array. 
Sempronius  Atratinus 

Was  left  in  charge  at  home 
With  boys,  and  with  gray-headed  men, 

To  keep  the  walls  of  Rome. 
Hard  by  the  Lake  Regillus 

Our  camp  was  pitched  at  night : 
Eastward  a  mile  the  Latines  lay, 

Under  the  Porcian  height. 
Far  over  hill  and  valley 

Their  mighty  host  was  spread ; 
And  with  their  thousand  watch-fires 
The  midnight  sky  was  red. 


Up  rose  the  golden  morning 
Over  the  Porcian  height, 

The  proud  Ides  of  Quintilis 
Marked  evermore  with  white. 


101  r.ATTl.K     OF     Tin:     I.AKi:     Kr.(i  1  I.I.LS. 

Not  without  siHTrt  trouMo 

Uur  bravest  saw  tlu>  foi's  : 
For  nirt  liy  tliroescore  tliuiisaiul  sjicars 

The  thirty  standards  rose. 
From  every  warlike  eity 

That  boasts  the  Latian  name, 
Foredoomed  to  dogs  and  vultures, 

That  gallant  army  came  ; 
From  Setia's  purple  vineyards. 
From  Norba's  ancient  wall. 
From  the  white  streets  of  Tusculum, 

The  proudest  town  of  all  ; 
From  where  the  Witch's  Fortress 
O'erhangs  the  dark-blue  seas  ; 
From  the  still  glassy  lake  that  sleeps 

Beneath  Aricia's  trees — 
Those  trees  in  whose  dim  shadow 
The  ghastly  priest  doth  reign. 
The  priest  who  slew  the  slayer, 
And  shall  himself  be  slain  ; 
From  the  drear  banks  of  Ufens, 

"WTiere  flights  of  marsh-fowl  play, 
And  buffaloes  lie  wallowing 

Through  the  hot  summer's  day ; 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  105 

From  the  gigantic  watcli-towers, 

No  work  of  earthly  men, 
Whence  Cora's  sentinels  o'erlook 

The  never-ending  fen  ; 
From  the  Laurentian  jungle, 

The  wild-hog's  reedy  home  ; 
From  the  green  steeps  whence  Anio  leaps 

In  floods  of  snow-white  foam. 


XI. 

Aricia,  Cora,  Norba, 

Velitrse,  with  the  might 
Of  Setia  and  of  Tuscuhnn, 

Were  marshalled  on  the  right  ; 
Their  leader  was  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name ; 
Upon  his  liead  a  helmet 

Of  red  gold  shone  like  flame  : 
High  on  a  gallant  charger 

Of  dark-gray  hue  he  rode ; 
Over  his  gilded  armor 

A  vest  of  purple  flowed, 
Woven  in  the  land  of  sunrise 

By  Syria's  dark-browed  daughters, 

14 


100  liATTi.i:   «>r   Tin:    i.aki:    kkcim.is. 

Ami  liy  tlio  sails  of  Caiilia^c  Innu'lit 
Tar  o'er  tlic  southern  wuterr^. 


xir. 

Lavinium  and  Laurcntiun 

Had  on  the  left  their  post, 
AVitli  all  the  banners  of  the  inavt^h, 

And  hanncrs  of  the  coast. 
Their  leader  was  liilse  Scxtus, 

That  wrought  the  deed  of  shame  : 
"With  restless  pace  and  haggard  face 

To  his  last  field  he  came. 
Men  said  he  saw  strange  visions 

"Which  none  beside  might  see  ; 
And  that  strange  sounds  were  in  his  ears 

"Which  none  might  hear  but  he. 
A  woman  fair  and  stately, 

But  pale  as  arc  the  dead, 
Oft  through  the  watches  of  the  night 

Sat  spinning  by  his  bed. 
And  as  she  plied  the  distaff. 

In  a  sweet  voice  and  low, 
She  sang  of  great  old  houses, 

And  fights  fought  long  ago. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 


l"^  HATTi.K   iM'   Tin:    i.AKi:    i;i:i;iM,us. 

Tlu'iv  null'  thr  Volst-iim  succors : 

There,  in  a  tlark  stern  rin;;. 
The  Human  exiles  ijathered  close 

Aritund  the  ancient  kin*;. 
Thoujrh  white  as  Mount  Soracte, 

"When  winter  ni^'lits  are  luiit:, 
His  lu'iinl  11(i\vim1  down  o'er  mail  ami  licit, 

His  heart  ami  liaml  were  strong. 
I'mler  his  hoary  eyehrows 

Still  Hashed  forth  (quenchless  rage : 
And.  if  the  lance  sho(d<  in  his  grijte, 

'Twas  more  with  hate  than  agQ. 
Close  at  his  side  was  Titus 

On  an  Apulian  steed, 
Titus,  the  youngest  Tarquin, 

Too  good  for  such  a  breed. 


XIV. 

Now  on  each  side  the  leaders 
Gave  signal  for  the  charge ; 

And  on  each  side  the  footmen 
Strode  on  with  lance  and  targe ; 

And  on  each  side  the  horsemen 
Struck  their  spurs  deep  in  gore  ; 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     EEGILLUS.  109 

And  front  to  front  the  armies 

Met  Avith  a  mighty  roar : 
And  under  that  great  battle 

The  earth  Avitli  blood  was  red ; 
And,  like  the  Pomptine  fog  at  morn, 

The  dust  hung  overhead  ; 
And  louder  still  and  louder 

Rose  from  the  darkened  field 
The  braying  of  the  war-horns, 

The  clang  of  sword  and  shield, 
The  rush  of  squadrons  SAveeping 

Like  whirlwinds  o'er  the  plain, 
The  shouting  of  the  slayers, 

And  screeching  of  the  slain. 


XV. 

False  Sextus  rode  out  foremost : 

His  look  Avas  high  and  l)old  ; 
His  corslet  Avas  of  bison's  hide, 

Plated  Avith  steel  and  (jjold. 
As  glares  the  famished  eagle 

From  the  Digentian  rock 
On  a  choice  lamb  that  bounds  alone 

Before  Bandusia's  flock, 


Hi'  i;atti.i:   of    tiii:    i.aki;    i;  r.i.  i  i.i, us. 

Ilcnniiiiiis  <j:l;iri'»l  on  Scxtiis, 

And  canio  with  eagle  speeil, 
Ilenninius  on  Maek  Austcr, 

])ravo  elianipion  un  l)rave  steed  ; 
In  his  right  hand  tlic  broads^word 

That  kept  tlie  bridge  so  wvW, 
And  on  his  hehn  the  crown  he  won 

AVhen  proud  Fidcna?  fell. 
AVoe  to  the  maid  whose  lover 

Shall  cross  his  path  to-day  ! 
False  Sextus  saw,  and  trembled, 

And  turned,  and  fled  away. 
As  turns,  as  flies,  the  woodman 

In  the  Calabrian  brake, 
When  through  the  reeds  gleams  the  round  eye 

Of  that  fell  speckled  snake  ; 
So  turned,  so  fled,  false  Sextus, 

And  hid  him  in  the  rear, 
Behind  the  dark  Lavinian  ranks, 

Bristling  with  crest  and  spear. 


XVI. 

But  far  to  north  ^T*]butius, 
The  Master  of  the  Knifihts, 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE    REGILLUS.  HI 

Gave  Tubero  of  Norba 

To  feed  the  Povcian  kites. 
Next  under  those  red  liorse-hoofs 

Flaccus  of  Setia  lay ; 
Better  had  he  been  pruning 
Among  his  elms  that  day. 
Mamilius  saw  the  slaughter. 

And  tossed  his  golden  crest, 
And  towards  the  Master  of  the  Knijihts 

Through  the  thick  battle  pressed. 
yEbutius  smote  Mamilius 

So  fiercely  on  the  shield 
That  the  great  lord  of  Tusculum 

Well-nigh  rolled  on  the  field. 
Mamilius  smote  ^butius, 

With  a  good  aim  and  true, 
Just  where  the  neck  and  shoulder  join, 

And  pierced  him  througli  and  throu!?h  ; 
And  brave  -^butius  Elva 

Fell  swooning  to  the  ground : 
But  a  thick  wall  of  bucklers 
Encompassed  him  around. 
His  clients  from  the  battle 
Bare  him  some  little  space, 


1 1-  15  A  T  T  I.  K     OF     Tin:     I.  A  K  V.     K  K  ( ;  I  M.  U  S. 

And  tilK'il  a  lu-lm  iVom  tliv  ilaik  lako. 
Ami  liatlicil  his  Inow  ami  I'aro ; 

And  \slu'n  at  last  lie  (i|H'm'd 
His  swimming  oyos  to  light, 

Men  say,  the  earliest  word  he  spake 
"Was,  "Friends,  how  goes  the  fight?" 


XVII. 

But  meanwhile  in  the  centre 

Great  deeds  of  arms  were  wrought ; 
There  Aulas  the  Dictator 

And  there  Valerius  fought. 
Aulus  with  his  good  broadsword 

A  bloody  passage  cleared 
To  where,  amidst  the  thickest  foes, 

He  saw  the  long  white  beard. 
Flat  lighted  that  good  broadsword 

Upon  proud  Tarquin's  head. 
He  dropped  the  lance :  he  dropped  the  reins 

He  fell  as  fall  the  dead. 
Down  Aulus  springs  to  slay  him. 

With  eyes  like  coals  of  fire  ; 
But  faster  Titus  hath  sprung  down, 

And  hath  bestrode  his  sire. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 

Latian  captains,  Roman  knights, 
Fast  down  to  earth  they  spring, 

And  hand  to  hand  they  fight  on  foot 
Around  the  ancient  king. 

First  Titus  gave  tall  Cseso 
A  death-wound  in  the  face ; 


113 


Ill  r.  ATTi.r.   i>F   Tin:    i.akk    kkc  illl'S. 

Tall  C;vso  was  the  bravi-.-t  man 

Of  tlu'  brave  FaMau  race  : 
Aiilus  slew  Kox  of  (!al)ii, 

Tlie  priest  of  Juno's  shrine  : 
Valerius  smote  down  Julius, 

Of  liome's  great  Julian  line; 
Julius,  who  left  his  mansion 

Iliffh  on  the  Velian  liill, 
And  through  all  turns  of  wail  and  woe 

Followed  proud  Tarquin  still. 
Now  right  across  proud  Tarquin 

A  corpse  was  Julius  laid ; 
And  Titus  groaned  -with  rage  and  grief, 

And  at  Valerius  made. 
Valerius  struck  at  Titus, 

And  lopped  off  half  his  crest ; 
But  Titus  stabbed  Valerius 

A  span  deep  in  the  breast. 
Like  a  mast  snapped  by  the  tempest, 

Valerius  reeled  and  fell. 
Ah  !  woe  is  me  for  the  good  house 

That  loves  the  people  well ! 
Then  shouted  loud  the  Latines  ; 

And  with  one  rush  they  bore 


BATTLE    OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 


115 


The  strugo-lino;  Romans  backward 
Three  lances'  length  and  more  ; 

And  up  they  took  proud  Tarquin, 
And  laid  him  on  a  shield, 

And  four  strong  yeomen  bare  him, 
Still  senseless,  from  the  field. 

XVIII. 
But  fiercer  grew  the  fighting 

Around  Valerius  dead ; 
For  Titus  dragged  him  by  the  foot, 

And  Aulus  by  the  head. 


116  15ATT1.K   or    Till:    i.AKi:    KKi;  M.  I,  rs. 

*•  On,  liiiliiu's,  on  I"  (juntli  Titus, 

"  Si>o  liow  tlu'  iilu'ls  lly!" 
'*  Hoinans.  st:inil  firm  I"  (pioili  Aiiliis, 

••  Ami  will  iliis  fi:_']it  or  tlir  I 
Tlu'V  must  not  ^ivr  \';ili'iius 

To  raven  ami  to  kite ; 
For  aye  A'aleriiis  loatlieil  tlie  wrong, 

And  aye  iijilieM  tlie  riglit  : 
And  for  your  Avi\  es  ami  Itabies 

In  the  front  rank  lie  fell. 
Kow  play  the  men  for  the  good  house 

That  loves  the  people  "well !" 


XIX. 

Then  tenfold  round  the  body 

The  roar  of  battle  rose, 
Like  the  roar  of  a  burning  forest, 

When  a  strong  northwind  blows. 
Now  backward,  and  now  forward, 

Rocked  furiously  the  fray, 
Till  none  could  see  Valerius, 

And  none  wist  where  he  lay. 
For  sliivered  arms  and  ensigns 

Were  heaped  there  in  a  mound. 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE     REGILLUS. 

And  corpses  stiff,  and  dying  men 

That  writhed  and  gnawed  the  ground ; 

And  wounded  horses  kicking, 
And  snorting  purple  foam : 

Rig-ht  well  did  such  a  couch  befit 
A  Consular  of  Rome. 


XX. 

But  north  looked  the  Dictator  ; 

North  looked  he  long  and  hard  ; 
And  spake  to  Caius  Cossus, 

The  Captain  of  his  Guard: 
"  Caius,  of  all  the  Romans 

Thou  hast  the  keenest  sight : 
Say,  what  through  yonder  storm  of  dust 

Comes  from  the  Latian  rifflit  ?" 


xxr. 
Then  answered  Caius  Cossus : 

"  I  sec  an  evil  sight ; 
The  banner  of  proud  Tusculum 

Comes  from  the  Latian  right ; 
I  see  the  plumed  horsemen  ; 

And  far  before  the  rest 


117 


lis  15ATT1.E   ov    Tin:    i.AKi:    i;i:(;  ii.i.i'S. 

I  soo  tlu'  (lark-i^ray  rliav;:i'r, 
1  siH'  the  purple  vost  ; 

I  SCO  the  polden  helmet 

That  shines  far  nfl"  like  flame  ; 

So  ever  rides  Mamilius, 

I'riiiee  of  the  Latiaii  ikiuu'."' 


XXII. 
"  Now  hearken,  Cuius  Cossus  : 

Spring  on  thy  horse's  back  ; 
Ride  as  the  wolves  of  Apennine 

"Were  all  upon  thy  track  ! 
Haste  to  our  southward  battle  ; 

And  never  draw  thy  rein 
Until  thou  find  Ilerminius, 

And  bid  him  come  amain," 


xxiir. 
So  Aulus  spake,  and  turned  him 

Again  to  that  fierce  strife ; 
And  Caius  Cossus  mounted. 

And  rode  for  death  and  life. 
Loud  clanged  beneath  his  horse-hoofs 

The  helmets  of  the  dead, 


15ATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS.  HO 

And  many  a  curdling  pool  of  blood 

Splashed  him  from  heel  to  head. 
So  came  he  far  to  southward, 

Where  fought  the  Roman  host, 
Against  the  banners  of  the  marsh 

And  banners  of  the  coast. 
Like  corn  before  the  sickle 

The  stout  Lavinians  fell, 
Beneath  the  edge  of  the  true  sword 

That  kept  the  bridge  so  w^ell. 


XXIV. 

"  Herminius  !  Aulus  greets  thee  ; 

He  bids  thee  come  with  speed, 
To  help  our  central  battle ; 

For  sore  is  there  our  need. 
There  wars  the  youngest  Tarquin, 

And  there  the  Crest  of  Flame, 
The  Tusculan  Mamilius, 

Prince  of  the  Latian  name. 
Valerius  hath  fallen  fighting 

In  front  of  our  array  ; 
And  Aulus  of  the  seventy  fields 

Alone  upholds  the  day. 


1-0  UATTI.i:     OV     TUr.     l.AKK     KKCILM'S. 

XXV. 

Ilortiiinins  luat  liis  Imsdiii  ; 

r>iit  iHVt  r  a  AVHid  lu'  spake. 
Ilr  clapju'il  his  liaml  (Ui  Austor's  niaiu' 

I  If  <ravo  tlic  reins  a  shake, 
Awav.  away,  went  Anster, 

Like  an  arroAv  frcnn  the  how  : 
Bhick  Auster  was  the  fleetest  steed 

From  Aufidus  to  Po. 


XXVI. 

Riffht  irhid  were  all  tlie  Romans 

"Who,  in  that  hour  of  dread, 
Against  great  odds  bare  up  the  Avar 

Around  Valerius  dead, 
When  from  the  south  the  cheering 

Rose  with  a  mighty  swell ; 
"  Ilerminius  comes,  Herminius, 

Who  kept  the  bridge  so  Avell  I" 


!  xxvir. 


Mamilius  spied  HerminiuF, 
And  dashed  across  the  way 


BATTLE    OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 


121 


"  Herminius  !  I  have  sought  thee 
Through  many  a  bhjody  day. 

One  of  us  two,  Hermmius, 
Shall  never  more  go  home. 

I  will  lay  on  for  Tusculum, 
And  lay  thou  on  for  Rome  !" 

XXVIII. 

All  round  them  paused  the  battle, 
While  met  in  mortal  fray 


16 


1--  r.  ATTi.i:    or   tin:    i.aki:    i;  kc  i  i.i.rs. 

Tin-  K.'iiKiu  ami  the  'Piisciilaii, 

Tlio  horses  Mack  and  izrav. 
IltTiiiiiiiiis  smote  Mamilius 

Through  hroast-jilate  ami  througli  breast 
Ami  fast  flowcil  out  thr  purple  liloo(l 

Over  the  purple  vest. 
Mamilius  smote  Ilermiuius 

Through  head-piece  and  througli  head  ; 
And  side  by  side  those  chiefs  of  pride 

Together  fell  do^vn  dead. 
Down  fell  they  dead  together 

In  a  great  lake  of  gore  ; 
And  still  stood  all  who  saw  them  fall 

"While  men  mijrht  count  a  score. 


XXIX. 

Fast,  fast,  with  heels  wild  spurning, 

The  dark-gray  charger  fled ; 
lie  burst  through  ranks  of  fighting  men  ; 

lie  sprang  o'er  heaps  of  dead. 
His  bridle  far  out-streaming, 

His  flanks  all  blood  and  foam, 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  EEGILLUS. 


123 


He  sought  the  southern  mountains, 

The  mountains  of  his  home. 
The  pass  was  steep  and  rugged, 

The  wolves  thej  howled  and  whined ; 
But  he  ran  like  a  whirlwind  up  the  pass, 

And  he  left  the  wolves  heliind. 
Through  many  a  startled  hamlet 

Thundered  his  flying  feet : 
He  rushed  through  the  gate  of  Tuscidnm, 

He  rushed  up  the  long  white  street ; 
He  rushed  hy  tower  and  temple, 

And  paused  not  from  his  race 
Till  he  stood  l)ef()re  his  master's  door 

In  the  stately  market-place. 


'iyff^\^im:^'  7%'i- 


Zd7 


And  straio-litwav  round  liim  gatliered 

A  pale  and  trembling  crowd, 
And  Avlien  tliey  knew  liim,  cries  of  r:;-  • 

Brake  forth,  and  wailing  loud : 
And  women  rent  their  tresses 

For  their  great  prince's  fall ; 
And  old  men  girt  on  their  old  SAVord.-. 

And  went  to  man  the  wall. 


!> 


1 


-4 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 


125 


XXX. 


Uut,  like  a  graven  image, 

Black  Anster  kept  liis  place, 
And  ever  wistfully  he  looked 

Into  his  master's  face. 
The  raven  niaiic  tluit  daily, 

AVitli  pats  and  f<»nd  caresses, 
The  young  llerniinia  washed  and  cnmhci 

And  twiiKMl  in  even  tresses, 


126  i.Aiii.i.    <■!■    riii:    i.aki:    kkc  i  LT,rs. 


Aiiil  (K'fki'il  Aviili  cdldi-cMl  riliMiids 

l-'roiii  Iht  own  <.';iy  iillirc, 
lliiiii:  sadly  o'er  her  I'allu-i-'s  corpse 

111  ciniairr  and  in  niirc. 
Forth  wiili  a  shout  sprang  Titus, 

And  sri/t'(l  l)hH'k  Anster's  rein. 
Then  Aldus  sware  a  fearful  oath, 

-Vnd  ran  at  him  amain. 
"  The  furies  of  thy  l)r()ther 

With  me  and  mine  ahide, 
If  one  of  your  accursed  liouse 

Upon  black  Auster  ride !"' 
As  on  an  Alpine  ^vatcli-toAver 

From  heaven  comes  do\vii  the  flame. 
Full  on  the  neck  of  Titus 

The  hlade  of  Aldus  came  : 
And  out  the  red  hlood  spouted, 

In  a  wide  arcli  and  tall, 
As  spouts  a  fountain  in  the  court 

Of  some  rich  Capuan's  hall. 
The  knees  of  all  the  Latines 

AVere  loosened  Avith  dismay, 
When  dead,  on  dead  Herminius, 

The  hravest  Tarfpiin  lay. 


BATTLE     OF     THE     LAKE     REGILLUS. 

XXXI. 

And  Aulus  tlie  Dictator 

Stroked  Auster's  raven  mane, 
With  heed  he  looked  unto  the  girths, 

With  heed  unto  the  rein. 
"Now  bear  me  well,  black  Auster, 

Into  yon  thick  array; 
And  thou  and  I  will  have  revenge 

For  thy  good  lord  this  day." 


127 


xxxir. 

So  spake  he ;  and  was  buckling 

Tighter  black  Auster's  band, 
When  he  was  aware  of  a  princely  pair 

That  rode  at  his  right  hand. 
So  like  they  were,  no  mortal 

Might  one  from  other  know : 
White  as  snow  their  armor  was : 

Their  steeds  were  white  as  snow. 
Never  on  earthly  anvil 

Did  such  rare  armor  gleam  ; 
And  never  did  such  gallant  steeds 

Drink  of  an  earthly  stream. 


128  HAITI. r.   OF   Tin;    i.aki;    kkc  i  i.i.rs. 

will. 
And  all  who  saw  tlinii  1 1 1'liiMrd, 

.\ih1  \)-a\v  iiww  c'vny  clici-k  ; 
And  Aulus  the  Dit-tator 

Scarce  gathered  voiee  to  speak. 
"Say  hy  what  luune  men  call  you? 

"What  city  is  your  home  ? 
And  wherefore  ride  ye  in  such  guise 

Before  the  ranks  of  Home?'' 


XXXIV. 


"By  many  names  men  call  us ; 

In  many  lands  we  dwell ; 
Well  Samothracia  knows  us  ; 

Cyrenc  knows  ivs  well. 
Our  house  in  gay  Tarcntum 

Is  huns  each  morn  with  floAvers  : 
High  o'er  the  masts  of  Syracuse 

Our  marble  portal  towers  ; 
But  hy  the  proud  Eurotas 

Is  our  dear  native  home  ; 
And  for  the  right  we  come  to  fight 

Before  the  ranks  of  Rome." 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE     REGILLUS. 


129 


XXXV. 


So  answered  those  strange  horsemen, 

And  each  couched  low  his  spear ; 
And  forthwith  all  the  ranks  of  Rome 

Were  bold,  and  of  good  cheer: 
And  on  the  thirty  armies 

Came  wonder  and  affright. 
And  Ardea  wavered  on  the  left, 

And  Cora  on  the  right. 
"Rome  to  the  cliai-ge  !"  cried  Aldus  ; 

"  The  foe  begins  to  yield  ! 


130  HAITI. i:    OF    Till-:    laki:    kkcillus, 

C'liariTi'  for  tlio  licartli  iA'  \fsla  1 
('liar^ri'  l\»r  tlic  (ioMon  ShicUl  ! 

Li't  no  man  stop  to  plunder, 
l)ut  slay,  and  slay,  and  slay  : 

The  Gods  who  live  for  ever 
Are  on  our  side  to-dav." 


XXXVI. 

Then  the  fierce  trumpet-flourish 

From  earth  to  heaven  arose, 
The  kites  know  well  the  long  stern  swell 

That  hids  the  Romans  close. 
Then  the  good  sword  of  Aulus 

Was  lifted  up  to  slay  : 
Then,  like  a  crag  down  Apennine, 

Rushed  Auster  through  the  fray. 
Rut  under  those  strange  horsemen 

Still  thicker  lay  the  slain  ; 
And  after  those  strange  horses 

Rlack  Auster  toiled  in  vain. 
Rehind  them  Rome's  long  battle 

Came  rolling  on  the  foe, 
Ensijrns  dancino;  wild  above, 

Rlades  all  in  line  below. 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  REGILLUS. 

So  comes  the  Po  in  flood-timo 

Upon  the  Celtic  plain  : 
So  comes  the  squall,  blacker  than  night, 

Upon  the  Adrian  main. 
Now,  by  our  Sire  Quirinus, 

It  -was  a  goodly  sight 
To  see  the  thirty  standards 

Swept  down  the  tide  of  flight. 
So  flies  the  spray  of  Adria 

When  the  black  squall  doth  blow  ; 
So  corn-sheaves  in  the  flood-time 

Spin  down  the  whirling  Po. 
False  Scxtus  to  the  mountains 

Turned  first  his  horse's  head, 
And  fast  fled  Ferentinum, 
And  fast  Lanuvium  fled. 
The  horsemen  of  Nomentum 

Spurred  hard  out  of  the  fray  ; 
The  footmen  of  Velitroe 

Threw  shield  and  spear  aAvay. 
And  underfoot  was  trampled. 
Amidst  the  mud  and  gore. 
The  banner  of  proud  Tusculum, 
That  never  stooped  before. 


131 


i::j 


11  ATT  I.  i:     OV     TlIK     LAKK     KKCILI.US. 


AikI  ilcwii  unit  Flavins  Faustus, 

"NVlio  li'il  his  stately  ranks 
From  wlioro  the  appU'  hlossoius  wave 

On  Aiiio's  ochoini:  banks, 
And  TuUns  of  Arpinuni, 

Chief  of  tlie  A^olscian  aids, 
And  ^Nletius  with  the  long  fair  curls, 

The  love  of  Anxur's  maids, 
And  the  white  head  of  A^ulso, 

The  great  Arician  seer. 


•\ 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE     REGILLUS. 

And  Nepos  of  Laurentum, 

The  liuntcr  of  the  deer ; 
And  in  the  back  false  Scxtus 

Felt  the  good  Roman  steel, 
And  -wriggling  in  the  dust  he  died, 

Like  a  worm  beneath  the  -wheel : 
And  fliers  and  pursuers 

"Were  mingled  in  a  mass  ; 
And  far  a-way  the  battle 

Went  roaring  through  the  pass. 


XXXVII. 

Sempronius  Atratinus 

Sate  in  the  Eastern  Gate, 
Beside  him  -were  three  Fathers, 

Each  in  his  chair  of  state  ; 
Fabius,  Avhose  nine  stout  grandsons 

That  day  -were  in  the  field. 
And  Manlius,  eldest  of  the  t-welve 

"Who  keep  the  Golden  Shield ; 
And  Sergius,  the  High  Pontifi", 

For  -wisdom  far  renowned  ; 
In  all  Etruria's  colleges 

Was  no  such  Pontiff  found. 


133 


!;'•»  hatti.i:   of   tui;    i.aki:    ki;(;illus. 

And  all  aroUMil  tlic  portal. 

Ami  high  above  tlio  wall. 
Stood  a  great  throng  of  people, 

But  sail  and  silent  all ; 
Young  lads,  and  stooping  elders 

That  might  not  hear  the  mail. 
Matrons  "with  lips  that  quivered, 

And  maids  "with  faces  pale. 
Since  the  first  gleam  of  daylight, 

Sempronius  had  not  ceased 
To  listen  for  the  rushing 

Of  horse-hoofs  from  the  east. 
The  mist  of  eve  was  rising. 

The  sun  was  hastening  down, 
When  he  was  aware  of  a  princely  pair 

Fast  pricking  towards  the  town. 
So  like  they  were,  man  never 

Saw  twins  so  like  before  ; 
Red  with  gore  their  armor  was, 

Their  steeds  were  red  with  gore. 


XXXVIII. 


"Hail  to  the  great  Asylum  I 
Hail  to  the  hill-tops  seven  I 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  REGIE  L  US. 


135 


Hail  to  tlic  fire  tliat  burns  for  aye, 
And  the  shield  that  fell  from  heaven 

This  day,  by  Lake  Regillns, 
Under  the  Porcian  height, 

All  ill  the  hinds  of  Tuseulinn 
Was  foucht  a  glorious  fifTht. 


ISO  i;  A  T  T  1. 1;     OV     Til  K     1.  A  K  K     K  K  (".  I  L  L  U  S. 

To-iiuiirttw  vmir  Pii-lator 
Shall  Itrini:  in  triiunpli  home 

The  spoils  of  thirty  cities 

To  ik'fk  the  shrines  of  Rome  !" 


XXXIX. 

Then  burst  from  that  great  concourse 

A  shout  that  shook  the  towers, 
And  some  ran  north,  and  some  ran  south. 

Crying,  "The  day  is  ours  !" 
Eut  on  rode  these  strange  horsemen, 

"With  slow  and  lordly  pace ; 
And  none  who  saw  their  bearing 

Durst  ask  their  name  or  race. 
On  rode  they  to  the  Forum, 

While  laurel-boughs  and  flowers, 
From  house-tops  and  from  windows. 

Fell  on  their  crests  in  showers. 
AVhcn  they  drew  nigh  to  Yesta, 

They  vaulted  down  amain, 
And  washed  their  horses  in  the  well 

That  springs  by  Vesta's  fane. 
And  straight  again  they  mounted. 

And  rode  to  Vesta's  door; 


BATTLE    OF    THE    LAKE     REGILLUS. 

Then,  like  ca  blast,  away  they  passed, 
And  no  man  saw  them  more. 


IC- 


XL. 

And  all  the  peoj^le  trembled, 

And  pale  grew  every  cheek ; 
And  Sergius  the  High  Pontiff 

Alone  found  voice  to  speak : 
"  The  Gods  who  live  for  ever 

Have  fought  for  Rome  to-day  ! 
These  be  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

To  whom  the  Dorians  pray. 


IS 


188  liATTl.K     OF     Tin-:     LARK     KKCILLUS. 

]);K-k  comes  the  Chief  in  tiiuniiih, 

"Who,  ill  the  hour  of  fight, 
Hath  seen  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

In  harness  on  his  right. 
Safe  comes  the  ship  to  haven, 

Through  billows  and  through  gales, 
If  once  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Sit  shining  on  the  sails. 
Wherefore  they  washed  their  horses 

In  Vesta's  holy  "well, 
"Wherefore  they  rode  to  Yesta's  door, 

I  know,  but  may  not  tell. 
Here,  hard  by  Yesta's  temple, 

Build  we  a  stately  dome 
Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

"Who  fought  so  Avell  for  Rome. 
And  when  the  months  returning 

Bring  back  this  day  of  fight, 
The  proud  Ides  of  Quintilis, 

Marked  evermore  with  white. 
Unto  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Let  all  the  people  throng, 
"With  chaplets  and  with  offerings, 

"With  music  and  with  song ; 


BATTLE  OF  THE  LAKE  REGILLUS. 


139 


And  let  the  doors  and  windows 

Be  hung  with  garlands  all, 
And  let  the  Knights  be  summoned 

To  Mars  without  the  wall : 
Thence  let  them  ride  in  purple 

With  joyous  trumpet-sound, 
Each  mounted  on  his  war-horse, 

And  each  with  olive  crowned  ; 
And  pass  in  solemn  order 

Before  the  sacred  dome. 
Where  dwell  the  Great  Twin  Brethren 

Who  fought  so  well  for  Rome." 


A^  H  G  I  N  I  A. 


A  COLLECTION  Consisting  exclusively  of  war-songs  would  give 
an  imperfect,  or  rather  an  erroneous,  notion  of  the  spirit  of 
the  old  Latin  ballads.  The  Patricians,  during  more  than  a 
century  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Kings,  held  all  the  high 
military  commands.  A  Plebeian,  even  though,  like  Lucius 
Siccius,  he  were  distinguished  by  his  valor  and  knowledge 
of  war,  could  serve  only  in  subordinate  posts.  A  minstrel, 
therefore,  who  wished  to  celebrate  the  early  triumphs  of  his 
country,  could  hardly  take  any  but  Patricians  for  his  heroes. 
The  warriors  who  are  mentioned  in  the  two  preceding  lays, 
Horatius,  Lartius,  Herminius,  Aulus  Posthumius,  iEbutius 
Elva,  Sempronius  Atratinus,  Valerius  Poplicola,  were  all 
members  of  the  dominant  order ;  and  a  poet  who  was  singing 
their  praises,  whatever  his  own  political  opinions  might  be, 
would  naturally  abstain  from  insulting  the  class  to  which  they 


in  \-  1  IJ  C  I  N  I  A . 

l>oU>nLroil,  and  tVmn  rctKH-tinj:"  on  tlu'  svNti'in  wliicli  liad   placed 
sni'li  nion  at  tlir  luad  of  the  legions  of  the  ('(Unuionwealtli. 

r)Ut  there  Nvas  a  elass  of  compositions  in  uhicli  the  great 
families  \vere  hv  no  means  so  conrteonsly  treated.  No  parts 
o[^  early  llonian  history  are  richer  ^^•ith  poetical  coloring 
than  those  Avhieh  relate  to  the  long  contest  between  the 
privileged  honses  and  the  commonalt3\  The  population  of 
Rome  "was.  from  a  very  early  period,  divided  into  hereditary 
castes,  Mliicb,  indeed,  readily  united  to  repel  foreign  enemies, 
hut  which  regarded  each  other,  during  many  years,  "with 
bitter  animosity.  Between  those  castes  there  was  a  barrier 
hardly  less  strong  than  that  Avliich,  at  Venice,  parted  the 
members  of  the  Great  Council  from  their  countrymen.  In 
some  respects,  indeed,  the  line  'svhich  separated  an  Icilius 
or  a  Duilius  from  a  Posthumius  or  a  Fabius  was  even  more 
deeply  marked  than  that  which  separated  the  rower  of  a 
gondola  from  a  Contarini  or  a  Morosini.  At  Venice  the 
distinction  was  merely  civil.  At  Rome  it  was  both  civil  and 
religious.  Among  the  grievances  under  which  the  Plebeians 
suffered,  three  were  felt  as  peculiarly  severe.  They  were 
excluded  from  the  highest  magistracies;  they  were  excluded 
from  all  share  in  the  public  lands ;  and  they  were  ground 
dmvn  to  the  dust  by  partial  and  barbarous  legislation  touch- 


VIRGINIA.  145 

ing  pecuniary  contracts.     The  ruling  class  in   Rome  was  a 
monied  class ;  and  it  made  and  administered  the  laws  with 
a  view  solely  to  its  own  interest.     Thus  the  relation  between 
lender  and  borrower  was  mixed  up  with  the  relation  between 
sovereign  and  subject.     The  great  men  held  a  large  portion 
of  the  community  in  dependence  by  means  of  advances  at 
enormous   usury.      The   law   of  debt,    framed   by   creditors, 
and   for  the  protection  of  creditors,  was  the  most  horrible 
that  has  ever  been  known  among  men.      The  liberty,  and 
even  the   life,  of  the  insolvent  were  at  the   mercy  of  the 
Patrician  money-lenders.      Children  often   became  slaves  in 
consequence  of  the  misfortune  of  their  parents.     The  debtor 
was   imprisoned,   not   in   a    public   gaol    under   the   care   of 
impartial   public  functionaries,   but  in  a   private  workhouse 
belonging  to  the  creditor.      Frightful   stories  were    told   re- 
specting these  dungeons.     It  was  said  that  torture  and  brutal 
violation   were   common ;    that    tight    stocks,    heavy   chains, 
scanty  measures  of  food,  were  used  to  punish  wretches  guilty 
of  nothing  but  poverty ;  and  that  brave  soldiers,  whose  breasts 
were  covered  with  honorable  scars,  were  often  marked  still 
more  deeply  on  the  back  by  the  scourges  of  high-born  usurers. 
The  Plebeians  were,  however,  not  wholly  without  consti- 
tutional rights.     From  an  early  period  they  had  been  admitted 


146  NIUCINIA. 

to  soiiH'  sIkuv  of  [lolitii'al  powi  r.  Tlicy  -wvw  enrolled  each 
in  Ins  ci'uturv,  and  wrre  allowed  a  share,  eoiisideialile  though 
not  proportioned  to  tlieir  munerieal  strength,  in  the  disposal 
of  those  hi^h  dignities  iVom  wliich  tliey  were  themselves  ex- 
cluded. Thus  their  position  bore  some  resemblance  to  that 
of  the  Irish  Catholics  during  the  interval  between  the  year 
17'J2  and  the  year  1829.  The  Plebeians  had  also  the 
privilege  of  annually  appointing  officers,  named  Tribunes, 
who  had  no  active  share  in  the  government  of  the  Common- 
wealth, but  who,  by  degrees,  acquired  a  power  formidable 
even  to  the  ablest  and  most  resolute  Consuls  and  Dictators. 
The  person  of  the  Tribune  was  inviolable;  and,  though  he 
could  directly  effect  little,  he  could  obstruct  everything. 

During  more  than  a  century  after  the  institution  of  the 
Tribuneship,  the  Commons  struggled  manfully  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  grievances  under  which  they  labored ;  and, 
in  spite  of  manj-  checks  and  reverses,  succeeded  in  wringing 
concession  after  concession  from  the  stubborn  aristocracy. 
At  length,  in  the  year  of  the  city  378,  both  parties  mustered 
their  whole  strength  for  their  last  and  most  desperate  con- 
flict. The  popular  and  active  Tribune,  Caius  Licinius,  pro- 
posed the  three  memorable  laws  which  are  called  by  his 
name,  and  which  were  intended  to  redress  the  three  great 


VIRGINIA.  147 

evils  of  which  the  Plebeians  complained.  He  was  supported, 
with  eminent  ability  and  firmness,  by  his  colleague,  Lucius 
Sextius.  The  struggle  appears  to  have  been  the  fiercest  that 
ever  in  any  community  terminated  without  an  appeal  to  arms. 
If  such  a  contest  had  raged  in  any  Greek  city,  the  streets 
would  have  run  with  blood.  But,  even  in  the  paroxysms  of 
faction,  the  Eoman  retained  his  gravity,  his  respect  for  law, 
and  his  tenderness  for  the  lives  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Year 
after  year  Licinius  and  Sextius  were  re-elected  Tribunes. 
Year  after  year,  if  the  narrative  which  has  come  down  to 
us  is  to  be  trusted,  they  continued  to  exert,  to  the  full 
extent,  their  power  of  stopping  the  Avliole  machine  of  govern- 
ment. No  curule  magistrates  could  be  chosen ;  no  military 
muster  could  be  held.  We  know  too  little  of  the  state  of 
Rome  in  those  days  to  be  able  to  conjecture  how,  during 
that  long  anarchy,  the  peace  was  kept,  and  ordinary  justice 
administered  between  man  and  man.  The  animosity  of  both 
parties  rose  to  the  greatest  height.  The  excitement,  we 
may  well  suppose,  would  have  been  peculiarly  intense  at  the 
annual  election  of  Tribunes.  On  such  occasions  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  the  great  families  did  all  that  could  be 
done,  by  threats  and  caresses,  to  break  the  union  of  the 
Plebeians.      That  union,  however,  proved   indissoluble.      At 


148 


V  1  im;  I  N  I  A. 


K'lmtli  the  gocul  cause  trinin[)lRMl.  Tlie  Liciuiau  laws  were 
carrieil.  Lueiiis  Sextius  was  the  first  IMelteian  Consul,  Caius 
Lieiuius  the  third. 

The  results  of  this  great  change  were  singularly  ha])i)y 
and  glorious.  Two  centuries  of  prosperity,  harnion\-,  and 
victory  followed  the  reconciliation  of  the  orders.  Men  who 
remembered  Kome  engaged  in  waging  petty  wars  almost 
within  sight  of  the  Capitol  lived  to  see  her  the  mistress  of 
Italy.  While  the  disabilities  of  the  Plebeians  continued,  she 
was  scarcely  able  to  maintain  her  ground  against  the  Yolscians 
and  Hernicans.  AVlien  those  disabilities  were  removed,  she 
rapidly  became  more  than  a  match  for  Carthage  and  Macedon. 

During  the  great  Licinian  contest  the  Plebeian  poets  were, 
doubtless,  not  silent.  Even  in  modern  times  songs  have 
been  by  no  means  without  influence  on  public  affairs;  and 
we  may  therefore  infer  that,  in  a  society  where  printing  was 
unknown,  and  where  books  were  rare,  a  pathetic  or  humorous 
party-ballad  must  have  produced  effects  such  as  we  can  but 
faintly  conceive.  It  is  certain  that  satirical  poems  were 
common  at  Rome  from  a  very  early  period.  The  rustics, 
wlio  lived  at  a  distance  from  the  seat  of  government,  and 
took  little  part  in  the  strife  of  factions,  gave  vent  to  their 
petty   local   animosities   in   coarse    Fescennine   verse.      The 


VIRGINIA.  149 


lampoons  of  tlie  city  were  doubtless  of  a  liiglier  order;  and 
their   sting   was    early   felt    by   the   nobility.      For   in    the 
Twelve   Tables,  long  before  the  time  of  the  Licinian  laws, 
a  severe  jDunishment  was  denounced  against  the  citizen  who 
should  compose  or  recite  verses  reflecting  on  another.=^=     Satire 
is,  indeed,  the  only  sort  of  composition  in  which  the  Latin 
poets,  whose  works  have  come  down  to  us,  were  not  mere 
imitators  of  foreign  models ;  and  it  is  therefore  the  only  sort 
of  composition  in  which  they  have  never  been  rivalled.     It 
was  not,  like  their  tragedy,  their  comedy,  their  epic  and  lyric 
poetry,  a  hothouse  plant,  which,  in  return  for  assiduous  and 
skilful  culture,  gave  only  scanty  and  sickly  fruits.      It  was 
hardy  and  full  of  sap;  and  in  all  the  various  juices  which 
it  yielded  might  be  distinguished  the  flavor  of  the  Ausonian 
soil.     "Satire,"  said  Quinctilian,  with  just  pride,  "is  all  our 
own."      Satire    sprang,   in    truth,   naturally   from    the   con- 
stitution of  the  Roman  government  and  from  the  spirit  of 
the  Roman  people ;  and,  though  at  length  subjected  to  metrical 
rules  derived  from  Greece,  retained  to  the  last  an  essentially 

*  Cicero  justly  infers  from  this  law  that  there  had  been  early  Latin  poets 
whose  works  had  been  lost  before  his  time.  "  Quainquam  id  quidem  ctiam  xii 
tabulae  declarant,  condi  jam  turn  solitum  esse  carmen,  quod  ne  liceret  fieri  ad 
alterius  injuriam  lege  sanxerunt." — Tmc.  iv.  2. 


1''0  VlKdlNIA. 

lumum  ch;ir;u'tor.  Liu'ilius  was  tlie  rarliost  satirist  whose 
works  wore  lieM  in  esteem  uiuler  the  Ciesars.  ]hit,  many 
vears  before  LiieiUus  was  born,  Nivvius  had  been  Ihmg  into 
a  ihuigeon,  and  guarded  there  witli  circumstances  of  unusual 
rigor,  on  account  of  the  bitter  lines  in  wliich  he  had  attacked 
the  great  Ca^cilian  family/-'  The  genius  and  spirit  of  the 
Roman  satirists  survived  the  liberty  of  their  country',  and 
were  not  extinguished  by  the  cruel  despotism  of  the  Julian 
and  Fhivian  Emperors.  The  great  poet  who  told  the  story 
of  Domitian's  turbot  was  the  legitimate  successor  of  those 
forgotten  minstrels  whose  songs  animated  the  frictions  of  the 
infant  Republic. 

Those  minstrels,  as  Niebuhr  has  remarked,  appear  to  have 
generally  taken  the  popular  side.  We  can  hardly  be  mis- 
taken in  supposing  that,  at  the  great  crisis  of  the  civil  con- 
flict, they  employed  themselves  in  versifying  all  the  most 
powerful  and  virulent  speeches  of  the  Tribunes,  and  in  heap- 
ing abuse  on  the  leaders  of  the  aristocracy.  Every  personal 
defect,  every  domestic  scandal,  every  tradition  dishonorable 
to  a  noble  house,  would  be  sought  out,  brought  into  notice, 
and  exaj'o-erated.      The  illustrious  head  of  the  aristocratical 


oo 


*  Plautus,  Miles  Gloriosus.     Aulus  Gellius,  iii.  3. 


VIRGINIA.  251 


party,  Marcus  Furius   Camillas,  might  perhaps  be,  in  some 
measure,  protected  by  his  venerable  age  and  by  the  memory 
of  his  great   services   to  the  State.      But  Appius  Claudius 
Crassus  enjoyed  no  such  immunity.     He  was  descended  from 
a  long  Ime  of  ancestors  distinguished  by  their  hau-hty  de- 
meanor, and  by  the  inflexibility  with  which  they  had  with- 
stood all  the  demands   of  the  Plebeian  order.      While  the 
political  conduct  and  the  deportment  of  the  Claudian  nobles 
drew  upon  them  the  fiercest  public  hatred,  they  were  accused 
of  wantmg,  if  any  credit  is  due  to  the  early  history  of  Rome 
a  class  of  qualities  which,  in   a  military  Commonwealth,  is 
sufficient  to  cover  a  multitude  of  offences.     The  chiefs  of  the 
family  appear  to  have  been  eloquent,  versed  in  civil  business 
and  learned  after  the  fashion  of  their  age;  but  in  war  they 
were  not  distinguished  by  skill  or  valor.     Some  of  them  as 
If  conscious  where  their  weakness  lay,  had,  when  filling  the 
highest  magistracies,  taken  internal  administration  as  their 
department  of  public  business,  and  left  the  military  command 
to  their  colleagues.*     One  of  them  had  been  intrusted  with 
an  army,  and  liad  failed  ignominiously.t     None  of  them  had 
been  honored  with  a  triumph.     None  of  them  had  achieved 

*  In  the  years  of  the  city  200,  304,  and  330. 
t  lu  the  year  of  the  city  282. 


l'»-  ^■  I  KC  1  N  I  A. 

any  martial  oxploit.  siieli  as  those  l>y  Avliich  T.iiciiis  (^Uilnctius 
CiiU'innatus.  Titus  (^hiinctius  ('a})it()rmus,  Aiiliis  Cornelius 
Cossiis,  luul,  above  all,  the  great  Caniillus,  had  extorted  the 
reluctant  esteem  of  the  multitude.  During  the  Licinian  con- 
llict,  Appius  Claudius  Crassus  signalized  himself  by  the  ability 
and  severity  with  which  he  harangued  against  the  two  great 
agitators.  lie  would  naturally,  therefore,  be  the  fiivorite 
mark  of  the  Plebeian  satirists ;  nor  would  they  have  been 
at  a  loss  to  find  a  point  on  which  he  was  open  to  attack. 

His  grandfather,  called,  like  himself,  Appius  Claudius,  had 
left  a  name  as  much  detested  as  that  of  Sextus  Tarquinius. 
This  elder  Appius  had  been  Consul  more  than  seventy  years 
before  the  introduction  of  the  Licinian  laws.  By  availing 
himself  of  a  singular  crisis  in  public  feeling,  he  had  obtained 
the  consent  of  the  Commons  to  the  abolition  of  the  Tribune- 
ship,  and  had  been  the  chief  of  that  Council  of  Ten  to  which 
the  whole  direction  of  the  State  had  been  committed.  In 
a  few  months  his  administration  had  become  universally 
odious.  It  had  been  swept  away  by  an  irresistible  outbreak 
of  popular  fury ;  and  its  memory  was  still  held  in  abhorrence 
by  the  whole  city.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  downfall  of 
this  execrable  government  was  said  to  have  been  an  attempt 
made  by  Appius  Claudius  upon  the  chastity  of  a  beautiful 


VIRGINIA.  153 

young  girl  of  humble  birth.  The  story  ran  that  the  De- 
cemvir, unable  to  succeed  by  bribes  and  solicitations,  resorted 
to  an  outrageous  act  of  tyranny.  A  vile  dependent  of  the 
Claudian  house  laid  claim  to  the  damsel  as  his  slave.  The 
cause  was  brought  before  the  tribunal  of  Appius.  The  wicked 
magistrate,  in  defiance  of  the  clearest  proofs,  gave  judgment 
for  the  claimant.  But  the  girl's  father,  a  brave  soldier,  saved 
her  from  servitude  and  dishonor  by  stabbing  her  to  the 
heart  in  the  sight  of  the  whole  Forum.  That  blow  was 
the  signal  for  a  general  explosion.  Camp  and  city  rose  at 
once ;  the  Ten  were  j)ulled  down  ;  the  Tribuneship  was  re- 
established ;  and  Appius  escaped  the  hands  of  the  execu- 
tioner only  by  a  voluntary  death. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  a  story  so  admirably  adapted 
to  the  purposes  both  of  the  poet  and  of  the  demagogue 
would  be  eagerly  seized  upon  by  minstrels  burning  with 
hatred  against  the  Patrician  order,  against  the  Claudian  house, 
and  especially  against  the  grandson  and  namesake  of  the  in- 
famous Decemvir. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  judge  fairly  of  these  frag- 
ments of  the  lay  of  Virginia,  he  must  imagine  himself  a 
Plebeian  who  has  just  voted  for  the  re-election  of  Sextius 
and  Licinius.      All   tlie   power  of  the  Patricians  has   been 

20 


ir>4  \  1  ii(;  1  N  1  A. 

exortotl  ti)  throw  out  the  two  ureat  chaniiiions  ol"  the  Com- 
mons. Kvor\  Posthiiiuius,  .iMiiirms,  and  Conicliiis  has  used 
his  inthionce  to  the  utmost.  Debtors  have  jjeeii  let  out 
of  the  -workhouses  on  eondition  ol"  voting  against  the  men  of 
the  people  ;  elients  have  been  posted  to  hiss  and  interrupt 
the  favorite  eandidates  :  Appius  Claudius  Crassus  has  spoken 
with  more  than  his  usual  eloquence  and  asperity :  all  has 
been  in  vain;  Lieinius  and  Sextius  have  a  fifth  time  carried 
all  the  tribes  :  work  is  suspended  :  the  booths  are  closed  :  the 
Plebeians  bear  on  their  shoulders  the  two  champions  of  hljerty 
through  the  Forum.  Just  at  this  moment  it  is  announced 
that  a  popular  poet,  a  zealous  adherent  of  the  Tribunes,  has 
made  a  new  song  which  will  cut  the  Claudian  nobles  to  the 
heart.  The  crowd  gathers  round  him,  and  calls  on  him  to 
recite  it.  He  takes  his  stand  on  the  spot  where,  according 
to  tradition,  Virginia,  more  than  seventy  years  ago,  Avas  seized 
by  the  pandar  of  Appius,  and  he  begins  his  story. 


LVCRETIA. 


Ir^^^^^^ 


VIRGINIA. 


FRAGMENTS  OF  A  LAY  SUNG  IN  THE  FORUM  ON  THE  DAY  WHEREON  LUCIUS  SEXTIUS  SEX- 
TINUS  LATERANUS  AND  CAIUS  LICINIUS  CALVUS  STOLO  WERE  ELECTED  TRIBUNES  OF 
THE    COMMONS    THE    FIFTH    TIME,    IN    THE    YEAR    OF    THE    CITY    CCCLXXXII. 


Ye  good  men  of  the  Commons,  with  loving  hearts  and  true, 
Who  stand  hy  the  bold  Tribunes  that  still  have  stood  by  you, 
Come,  make  a  circle  round  me,  and  mark  my  tale  Avith  care, 
A  tale  of  what  Rome  once  hath  borne,  of  what  Rome  yet  may  bear. 


158  V  1  liC  1  N  1  A. 

This  is  no  Grooiau  faMi',  of  fountains  running  wino, 

Of  niaitls  with  snaky  tresses,  or  saihirs  tiu'ned  to  swine. 

Hero,  in  thi<  very  Fornni,  ninler  tlie  noonday  sun. 

In  sight  of  all  the  jH'ojjle,  the  MdoiIv  deed  was  done. 

Ohl  men  still  creep  among  us  who  saw  that  fearful  day, 

Just  seventy  years  and  seven  a<r'>,  when  the  wieked  Ten  hare  sway. 

( »f  all  tlic  wicked  Ten  still  the  names  arc  held  accursed, 
And  of  all  the  wicked  Ten  Appius  Claudius  was  the  ■worst. 
He  stalked  along  the  Forum  like  King  Tarquin  in  his  pride : 
Twelve  axes  waited  on  him,  six  marching  on  a  side  ; 
The  townsmen  shrank  to  right  and  left,  and  eyed  askance  "with  fear 
Ilis  lowering  brow,  his  curling  mouth,  which  alway  seemed  to  sneer : 
That  brow  of  hate,  that  mouth  of  scorn,  marks  all  the  kindred  still ; 
For  never  was  there  Claudius  yet  but  wished  the  Commons  ill : 
Xor  lacks  he  fit  attendance ;  for  close  behind  his  heels, 
"With  outstretched  chin  and  crouching  pace,  the  client  Marcus  steals, 
Ilis  loins  girt  up  to  run  with  speed,  be  the  errand  what  it  may, 
And  the  smile  flickering  on  his  cheek,  for  aught  his  lord  may  say. 
Such  varlcts  pimp  and  jest  for  hire  among  the  lying  Greeks  : 
Such  varlcts  still  are  paid  to  hoot  when  brave  Licinius  speaks. 
Where'er  ye  shed  the  honey,  the  buzzing  flies  will  crowd ; 
Where'er  ye  fling  the  carrion,  the  raven's  croak  is  loud ; 


VIEGINIA. 


159 


Where'er  down  Tiber  garbage  floats,  tlie  greedy  pike  ye  see 
And  "wheresoe'er  such  lord  is  found,  such  client  still  will  be. 


Just  then,  as  tlirougli  one  cloudless  chink  in  a  black  stormy  sky 
Shines  out  the  dewy  morning-star,  a  fair  young  girl  came  by. 
With  her  small  tablets  in  her  hand,  and  her  satchel  on  her  arm, 
Home  she  went  bounding  from  the  school,  nor  dreamed  of  shame  or  harm  ; 
And  past  those  dreaded  axes  she  innocently  ran, 

With  bright,  frank  brow  that  had  not  learned  to  blush  at  gaze  of  man  ; 
And  up  the  Sacred  Street  she  turned,  and,  as  she  danced  along, 
She  warbled  gaily  to  herself  lines  of  the  good  old  song, 
How  for  a  sport  the  princes  came  spurring  from  the  camp, 
And  found  Lucrecc,  combing  the  fleece,  under  the  midnight  lamp. 


160  V  1  K  ( ;  I  N  I  A . 

The  ma'ulon  sang  as  siiifis  tlio  lark,  ulun  uj)  lir  darts  liis  ili;;lit. 

From  his  nest  in  the  preen  Ajtril  cdvu,  to  nu'ct  tlu"  ni<irniii;i;  li;;ht; 

Ami  Appius  heard  her  swoet  young  voico,  and  saw  her  sweet  young  face, 

And  Ittvod  hor  with  the  aecurscd  love  of  his  accursed  race, 

And  all  along  the  Forum,  and  up  the  Sacred  Street, 

His  vulture  eye  pursued  the  trip  of  those  small  glancing  feet. 


Over  the  Albau  mountains  the  light  of  morning  broke ; 
From  all  the  roofs  of  the  Seven  Hills  curled  the  thin  wi'eaths  of  smoke 
The  city  gates  were  opened;  .the  Forum,  all  alive, 
AVith  buyers  and  with  sellers  was  humming  like  a  hive ; 
Blithely  on  brass  and  timber  the  craftsman's  stroke  Avas  ringing, 
And  blithely  o'er  her  panniers  the  market-girl  was  singing, 
And  blithely  young  Virginia  came  smiling  from  her  home  : 
Ah  !  woe  for  young  Virginia,  the  sweetest  maid  in  Rome  ! 
With  her  small  tablets  in  her  hand,  and  her  satchel  on  her  arm, 
Forth  she  went  bounding  to  the  school,  nor  dreamed  of  shame  or  harm. 
She  crossed  the  Forum  shining  with  stalls  in  alleys  gay. 
And  just  had  reached  the  very  spot  whereon  I  stand  this  day, 
When  up  the  varlet  Marcus  came  ;  not  such  as  when  erewhile 
He  crouched  behind  his  patron's  heels  with  the  true  client  smile  : 
He  came  with  lowering  forehead,  swollen  features,  and  clenched  fist, 
And  strode  across  Virginia's  path,  and  caught  her  by  the  wrist. 


VIRGINIA.  101 

Hard  strove  the  friglitcd  maiden,  and  screamed  witli  look  agliast ; 

And  at  her  scream  from  right  and  left  the  folk  came  running  fast ; 

The  money-changer  Crispus,  with  his  thin  silver  hairs, 

And  Hanno  from  the  stately  booth  glittering  with  Punic  wares, 

And  the  strong  smith  Mursena,  grasping  a  half-forged  brand. 

And  Volero  the  fleshcr,  his  cleaver  in  his  hand. 

All  came  in  wrath  and  wonder ;  for  all  knew  that  fair  child ; 

And,   as    she    passed   them   twice   a   day,   all   kissed  their  hands   and 

smiled ; 
And  the  strong  smith  Muroena  gave  Marcus  such  a  blow. 
The  caitiff  reeled  three  paces  back,  and  let  the  maiden  go. 
Yet  glared  he  fiercely  round  him,  and  growled  in  harsh,  fell  tone, 
"  She's  mine,  and  I  will  have  her  :  I  seek  but  for  mine  own  : 
She  is  my  slave,  born  in  my  house,  and  stolen  away  and  sold, 
The  year  of  the  sore  sickness,  ere  she  was  twelve  hours  old. 
'TAvas  in  the  sad  Septem])er,  the  month  of  wail  and  fright. 
Two  augurs  were  borne  forth  that  morn ;  the  Consul  died  ere  night. 
I  wait  on  Appius  Claudius  ;  I  waited  on  his  sire  : 
Let  him  who  works  the  client  wrong  beware  the  patron's  ire  !" 


So  spake  the  varlet  Marcus ;  and  dread  and  silence  came 
On  all  the  people  at  the  sound  of  tlie  great  Claudian  name. 
For  then  there  was  no  Tribune  to  speak  the  word  of  might. 
Which  makes  the  ricli  man  tremble,  and  guards  tlie  poor  man's  riglit. 

21 


162 


V  I  KC  1  N  1  A. 


There  was  ni>  liravo  Lifiniiis,  no  lioncst  Scxtiiis  tlicii  ; 

But  all  tlio  fitv.  in  irroat  lV:ir,  oIu'VimI  tlic  wicked  Ten. 

Yi't  orr  tlio  varlot  M:iri-us  mlmiii  iiiiirlit  srizc  tlic  niniil, 

Who  clung  tight  to  Mur:cna's  skirt.  Mini  solilx-il,  ;intl  shrickcMl  for  ;iiil, 

Forth  through  tlie  tlirong  of  gazers  tlic  vdiiiig  Iciliiis  pressed, 

Ami  stamped  his  foot,  and  rent  liis  gown,  and  smote  upon  liis  hroast, 

Ami  sprang  upon  that  eolinnn,  liy  many  a  minstrel  sung, 

"Whereon  three  mouldering  helmets,  three  rusting  swords  arc  hung, 

And  heckoned  to  the  people,  and  in  bold  voice  and  clear 

Toured  thick  and  fast  the  burning  words  which  tyrants  quake  to  hear. 


"Now,  by  your  children's  cradles,  now,  by  your  fathers'  graves, 
Be  men  to-day,  Quirites,  or  be  for  ever  slaves ! 


VIRGINIA. 


1G3 


For  this  did  Servius  give  us  laws  ?     For  this  did  Lucrece  bleed  ? 

For  this  was  the  great  vengeance  wrought  on  Tarquin's  evil  seed  ? 

For  this  did  those  false  sons  make  red  the  axes  of  their  sire  ? 

For  this  did  Scievola's  right  hand  hiss  in  the  Tuscan  fire  ? 

Shall  the  vile  fox-earth  awe  the  race  that  stormed  the  lion's  den  ? 

Shall  we,  who  could  not  brook  one  lord,  crouch  to  the  wicked  Ten  ? 

Oh  for  that  ancient  spirit  which  curbed  the  Senate's  will ! 

Oh  for  the  tents  which  in  old  time  whitened  the  Sacred  Hill ! 

In  those  brave  days  our  fathers  stood  firmly  side  by  side ; 

They  faced  the  Marcian  fury ;  they  tamed  the  Fabian  pride  ; 

They  drove  the  fiercest  Quinctius  an  outcast  forth  from  Rome  ; 

They  sent  the  haughtiest  Claudius  Avith  shivered  fasces  home. 

But  what  their  care  bequeathed  us  our  madness  flung  away  : 

All  the  ripe  fruit  of  threescore  years  was  blighted  in  a  day. 

Exult,  ye  proud  Patricians  !     The  hardfought  fight  is  o'er. 

We  strove  for  honors — 'twas  in  vain :  for  freedom — 'tis  no  more. 

No  crier  to  the  polling  summons  the  eager  throng ; 

No  Tribune  breathes  the  word  of  might  that  guards  the  weak  from  wrong. 

Our  very  hearts,  that  were  so  high,  sink  down  beneath  your  will. 

Riches,  and  lands,  and  power,  and  state — ye  have  them : — keep  them 

still. 
Still  keep  the  holy  fillets  ;  still  keep  the  purple  gown. 
The  axes,  and  the  curule  chair,  the  car,  and  laurel  crown : 
Still  press  us  for  your  cohorts,  and,  when  the  fight  is  done. 
Still  fill  your  garners  from  the  soil  whicli  our  good  swords  have  won. 


l'>i  VIIK^NIA. 

Still,  like  :i  s|irr:i<rniL:;  iilcrr,  Aviru-li  li'ccli-crafl  may  imt  euro, 

Lot  VMur  foul  usance  eat  away  the  substanee  of  tin-  ]ioor. 

Still  let  your  ha<ri;ar(l  debtors  l)ear  all  their  fathers  hore  ; 

Still  let  your  tlens  of  torment  he  noisome  as  of  yore  ; 

No  fire  when  Tiher  freezes  ;  no  air  in  (h\ir-star  heat ; 

And  store  of  rods  for  free-horn  hacks,  and  holes  for  free-horn  feet. 

Heap  heavier  still  the  fetters  ;  har  closer  still  the  grate  ; 

Patient  as  sheep  "vve  yield  us  up  unto  your  cruel  hate. 

But,  hy  the  Shades  beneath  us,  and  by  the  Gods  above. 

Add  not  unto  your  cruel  hate  your  yet  more  cruel  love  I 

Have  ye  not  graceful  ladies,  whose  spotless  lineage  springs 

From  Consuls,  and  High  Pontiifs,  and  ancient  Alban  kings  ? 

Ladies,  who  deign  not  on  our  paths  to  set  their  tender  feet, 

Who  from  their  cars  look  down  Avith  scorn  upon  the  wondering  street, 

Who  in  Corinthian  mirrors  their  own  proud  smiles  behold, 

And  breathe  of  Capuan  odors,  and  shine  with  Spanish  gold  ? 

Then  leave  the  poor  Plebeian  his  single  tic  to  life — 

The  sweet,  sweet  love  of  daughter,  of  sister,  and  of  wife, 

The  gentle  speech,  the  balm  for  all  that  his  vexed  soul  endures, 

The  kiss,  in  which  he  half  forgets  even  such  a  yoke  as  yours. 

Still  let  the  maiden's  beauty  swell  the  father's  breast  Avith  pride  ; 

Still  let  the  bridegroom's  arms  infold  an  unpolluted  bride. 

Spare  us  the  inexpiable  wrong,  the  unutterable  shame. 

That  turns  the  coward's  heart  to  steel,  the  sluggard's  blood  to  flame, 


VIRGINIA. 


165 


Lest,  when  our  latest  hope  is  fled,  ye  taste  of  our  despair. 

And  learn  by  proof,  in  some  wild  hour,  how  much  the  wretched  dare." 


Straightway  Virg'inius  led  the  maid  a  little  space  aside, 
To  where  the  reeking  shambles  stood,  piled  up  with  horn  and  hide, 
Close  to  yon  low  dark  archway,  where,  in  a  crimson  flood, 
Leaps  down  to  the  great  sewer  the  gurgling  stream  of  blood. 
Hard  by,  a  flesher  on  a  block  had  laid  his  whittle  down : 
Virginius  caught  the  whittle  up,  and  hid  it  in  his  gown. 
And  then  his  eyes  grew  very  dim,  and  his  throat  began  to  swell, 
And   in  a  hoarse,  changed    voice    he    spake,    "Farewell,  sweet  child! 
Farewell ! 


\m 


V  I  KC  I  N  1  A. 


Oh  I  how  I  loved  my  darling  !     Though  stern  I  sometimes  be, 

To  thee,  thou  know'st,  I  "was  not  so.     "Who  could  be  so  to  thee  ? 

And  how  my  darling  loved  me  !     How  glad  she  was  to  hear 

My  footstep  on  the  threshold  Avhcn  I  came  back  last  year  I 

And  how  she  danced  with  pleasure  to  see  my  civic  crown, 

And  took  my  sword,  and  hung  it  up,  and  brought  me  forth  my  gown  I 

Now,  all  those  things  are  over — yes,  all  thy  pretty  ways, 

Thy  needlework,  thy  prattle,  thy  snatches  of  old  lays ; 

And  none  will  grieve  when  I  go  forth,  or  smile  when  I  return. 

Or  watch  beside  the  old  man's  bed,  or  weep  upon  his  urn. 


VIRGINIA. 


167 


The  house  that  was  the  happiest  withm  the  Roman  walls, 

The  house  that  envied  not  the  wealth  of  Capua's  marble  halls, 

Now,  for  the  brightness  of  thy  smile,  must  have  eternal  gloom. 

And  for  the  music  of  thy  voice,  the  silence  of  the  tomb. 

The  time  is  come.     See  how  he  points  his  eager  hand  this  way  ! 

See  how  his  eyes  gloat  on  thy  grief,  like  a  kite's  upon  the  prey  ! 

With  all  his  wit,  he  little  deems,  that,  spurned,  betrayed,  bereft. 

Thy  father  hath  in  his  despair  one  fearful  refuge  left. 

He  little  deems  that  in  this  hand  I  clutch  what  still  can  save 

Thy  gentle  youth  from  taunts  and  blows,  the  portion  of  the  slave ; 


l^i>  V  I  KC  1  \  1  A. 

Yi'a,  ami  tVoin  iiaiiu'loss  r\il.  that  i>a>.sctli  taunt  ami  Mow  — 

Foul  outrage  whit-li  tlioii  kiiowost  not,  \\lii(li  tliim  >liall  never  know. 

Tlu'ii  c'lasj>  ino  roiiinl  tin-  m-ek  onee  more,  and  i:i\e  me  one  moii'  kiss 

An>l  now,  mine  own  dear  little  ifirl,  tln-re  is  no  way  Imt  this." 

With  that  he  lifted  hiijli  the  steel,  and  smote  her  in  the  side, 

And  in  her  IdooJ  she  sank  to  earth,  and  with  one  sol)  she  died. 


Then,  for  a  little  moment,  all  people  held  their  hreath; 
And  through  the  erowded  Forum  ^vas  stillness  as  of  deatli; 
And  in  another  moment  brake  forth  from  one  and  all 
A  cry  as  if  the  Yolscians  Avcrc  coming  oer  the  wall. 
Some  with  averted  faces  shrieking  fled  home  amain  ; 
Some  ran  to  call  a  leech ;  and  some  ran  to  lift  the  slain : 
Some  felt  her  lips  and  little  Avrist,  if  life  might  there  he  found ; 
And  some  tore  up  their  garments  fast,  and  strove  to  stanch  the  wound. 
In  vain  thej  ran,  and  felt,  and  stanched ;  for  never  truer  blow 
That  good  right  arm  had  dealt  in  fight  against  a  Volscian  foe. 


When  Appius  Claudius  saw  that  deed,  he  shuddered  and  sank  down. 
And  hid  his  face  some  little  space  with  the  corner  of  his  gown, 
Till,  with  white  lips  and  bloodshot  eyes,  Virginius  tottered  nigh, 
And  stood  before  the  judgment-seat,  and  held  the  knife  on  high. 
'•  Oh  I  dwellers  in  the  nether  gloom,  avengers  of  the  slain, 
By  this  dear  blood  I  cry  to  you,  do  right  between  us  twain ; 


VIRGINIA. 


169 


And  even  as  Appius  Claudius  liatli  dealt  by  me  and  mine, 

Deal  you  by  Appius  Claudius  and  all  the  Claudian  line !" 

So  spake  the  slayer  of  his  child,  and  turned,  and  went  his  way ; 

But  first  he  cast  one  haggard  glance  to  where  the  body  lay. 

And  writhed,  and  groaned  a  fearful  groan,  and  then,  with  steadfiist  feet, 

Strode  right  across  the  market-place  unto  the  Sacred  Street. 


Then  up  sprang  Appius  Claudius :   "  Stop  him  ;  alive  or  dead  ! 
Ten  thousand  pounds  of  copper  to  the  man  who  brings  his  head." 


no  VIKCINIA. 

IIo  IooIvimI  upon  Ills  clients;   Imt  nunc  woiiM  \viiik  liis  will. 

Ho  lookotl  upon  his  lit-tors  :  luit  tlicv  tiiiiililcd.  Mini  stond  still. 

Ami,  as  Virginius  tlirouiih  the  jiress  liis  u;iy  in  >ilciir('  cU'l't, 

Ever  the  iui<:hty  multitude  i'dl  Icick  to  riirht  :niil  left. 

Ami  he  hath  passed  in  safety  unto  his  woeful  homo, 

And  there  ta'en  horse  to  tell  the  camp  what  deeds  are  done  in  Uome. 


Ijv  this  the  flood  of  people  was  SAVollcn  from  every  side, 
And  streets  and  porches  round  were  filled  with  that  o'crflowing  tide ; 
And  close  around  the  body  gathered  a  little  train 
Of  them  that  were  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  slain. 
They  brought  a  bier,  and  hung  it  with  many  a  cypress  crown, 
And  gently  they  uplifted  her,  and  gently  laid  lier  down. 
The  face  of  Appius  Claudius  wore  the  Claudian  scowl  and  sneer, 
And  in  the  Claudian  note  he  cried,  "  What  doth  this  rabble  here  ? 
Have  they  no  crafts  to  mind  at  home,  that  hitherward  they  stray  ? 
IIo !  lictors,  clear  the  market-place,  and  fetch  the  corpse  away  !" 
The  voice  of  grief  and  fury  till  then  had  not  been  loud ; 
But  a  deep  sullen  murmm-  wandered  among  the  crowd. 
Like  the  moaning  noise  that  goes  before  the  whirlwind  on  the  deep. 
Or  the  growl  of  a  fierce  watch-dog  but  half-aroused  from  sleep. 
But  when  the  lictors  at  that  Avord,  tall  yeomen  all  and  strong, 
Each  with  his  axe  and  sheaf  of  twigs,  went  down  into  the  throng. 


VIRGINIA.  171 

Those  old  men  say,  who  saw  that  day  of  sorrow  and  of  sin, 

That  in  the  Roman  forum  was  never  such  a  din. 

The  wailing,  hooting,  cursing,  the  howls  of  grief  and  hate, 

Were  heard  beyond  the  Pincian  Hill,  beyond  the  Latian  Gate. 

But  close  around  the  body,  where  stood  the  little  train 

Of  them  that  were  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  the  slain. 

No  cries  were  there,  but  teeth  set  fast,  low  whispers,  and  black  frowns. 

And  breaking  up  of  benches,  and  girding  up  of  gowns. 

'Twas  well  the  lictors  might  not  pierce  to  where  the  maiden  lay, 

Else  surely  had  they  been  all  twelve  torn  limb  from  limb  that  day. 

Right  glad  they  were  to  struggle  back,  blood  streaming  from  their  heads, 

With  axes  all  in  splinters,  and  raiment  all  in  shreds. 

Then  Appius  Claudius  gnawed  his  lip,  and  the  blood  left  his  cheek  ; 

And  thrice  he  beckoned  with  his  hand,  and  thrice  he  strove  to  speak  ; 

And  thrice  the  tossing  Forum  set  up  a  frightful  yell ; 

"  See,  see,  thou  dog !  what  thou  hast  done  ;  and  hide  thy  shame  in  hell ! 

Thou  that  w^ouldst  make  our  maidens  slaves  must  first  make  slaves  of 

men. 
Tribunes  !  Hurrah  for  Tribunes  !  Down  with  the  wicked  Ten  !" 
And  straightway,  thick  as  hailstones,  came  whizzing  through  the  air 
Pebbles,  and  bricks,  and  potsherds,  all  round  the  curule  chair  : 
And  upon  Appius  Claudius  great  fear  and  trembling  came  ; 
For  never  was  a  Claudius  yet  brave  against  aught  but  shame. 
Though  the  great  houses  love  us  not,  we  own,  to  do  them  right. 
That  the  great  houses,  all  save  one,  have  borne  them  well  in  fight. 


172  V  T  R  n  T  X  T  A . 


U 


•N^^X. v:^S>^    -^• 


Still  Caius  of  Corioli,  his  triumphs,  and  his  wrongs, 

His  vengeance,  and  bis  merej,  live  in  our  camp-fire  songs. 

Beneath  the  yoke  of  Furius  oft  have  Gaul  and  Tuscan  bowed ; 

And  Rome  may  bear  the  pride  of  him  of  whom  herself  is  proud. 

But  evermore  a  Claudius  shrinks  from  a  stricken  field. 

And  changes  color  like  a  maid  at  sio;lit  of  sword  and  shield. 

The  Claudian  triumphs  all  were  won  within  the  city-towers ; 

The  Claudian  yoke  was  never  pressed  on  any  necks  but  om-s. 

A  Cossus,  like  a  wild-cat,  springs  ever  at  the  face ; 

A  Fubius  rushes  like  a  boar  against  the  shouting  chase ; 

But  the  vile  Claudian  litter,  raging  with  currish  spite, 

Still  yelps  and  snaps  at  those  who  run,  still  runs  from  those  who  smite. 

So  now  'twas  seen  of  Appius.     When  stones  began  to  fly, 

He  shook,  and  crouched,  and  wrung  his  hands,  and  smote  upon  his  thigh. 

"  Kind  clients,  honest  lictors,  stand  by  me  in  this  fray ! 

Must  I  be  torn  to  pieces  ?   Home,  home,  the  nearest  way !" 


VIRGINIA. 


173 


While  yet  he  spake,  and  looked  around  with  a  bewildered  stare, 

Four  sturdy  lictors  put  their  necks  beneath  the  curule  chair ; 

And  fourscore  clients  on  the  left,  and  fourscore  on  the  right, 

Arrayed  themselves  with  swords  and  staves,  and  loins  girt  up  for  fight. 

But  though  without  or  staff  or  sword,  so  furious  was  the  throng. 

That  scarce  the  train  with  might  and  main  could  bring  their  lord  along. 

Twelve  times  the  crowd  made  at  him;  five  times  they  seized  his  gown,^ 

Small  chance  was  his  to  rise  again,  if  once  they  got  him  down; 

And  sharper  came  the  pelting ;  and  evermore  the  yell— 

"  Tribunes  !  we  will  have  Tribunes  !"-rose  with  a  louder  swell : 


I7t 


VI  nr,  1  \  I  A. 


Ami  the  chair  tossed  as  tosses  a  liaik  witli  tattcreil  sail 

Wlien  raves  tin-  Adriatic  beneath  an  eastern  gak», 

^^^lon  the  Cahilirian  sea->iiarks  are  lost  in  clouds  of  sjniine, 

And  the  great  Thunder-Caite  has  donned  liis  veil  id'  inky  i:looni. 

One  stone  hit  Appius  in  the  moiitli,  an<l  one  heneatli  the  ear; 

And  ere  he  reached  Monnt  Palatine,  he  swooned  with  pain  and  fear. 

His  cursed  head,  that  he  was  wont  to  hold  so  high  with  pride, 

Now,  like  a  drunken  man's,  hung  downi,  and  swayed  from  side  to  side ; 

And  when  his  stout  retainers  had  brought  liim  to  his  door, 

His  face  and  neck  were  all  one  cake  of  filth  and  clotted  crore. 

As  Appius  Claudius  was  that  day,  so  may  his  grandson  be  ! 

God  send  Rome  one  such  other  sight,  and  send  me  there  to  see  ! 


4Ji 


)y^,d^^J^ 


THE   PROPHECY   OF   CAPYS. 


It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  remind  any  reader  that, 
according  to  the  popidar  tradition,  Romulus,  after  he  had 
slain  his  grand-uncle  Amulius,  and  restored  his  grandfather 
Numitor,  determined  to  quit  Alba,  the  hereditary  domain 
of  the  Sylvian  princes,  and  to  found  a  new  city.  The  Gods, 
it  was  added,  vouchsafed  the  clearest  signs  of  the  favor  with 
which  they  regarded  the  enterprise,  and  of  the  high  destinies 
reserved  for  the  young  colony. 

This  event  was  likely  to  be  a  favorite  theme  of  the  old 
Latin  minstrels.  They  would  naturally  attribute  the  project 
of  Romulus  to  some  divine  intimation  of  the  power  and  pros- 
perity which  it  was  decreed  that  his  city  should  attain. 
They  would  probably  introduce  seers  foretelling  the  victories 
of  unborn  Consuls  and  Dictators,  and  the  last  great  victory 
would  generally  occupy  the  most  conspicuous  place  in  the 
prediction.  There  is  nothing  strange  in  the  supposition  that 
the  poet  who  was  employed  to  celebrate  the  first  great  triumph 


178  lilt     IK."  r  II  r.c  V   or   CArvs. 

of   tlio    Komaus    owv    llir    (Jrcrks    iiii^^lit    throw    liis    ^^oiijj;   c;l' 
I'xiiltatioii  into  tlii^  I'oriii. 

TIk'  (HH'asion  was  one  likoly  to  excito  the  stroiiucst  rcclinus 
of  national  pr'nk'.  A  great  outrage  had  hei'n  followed  ]>y 
a  great  retribution.  Seven  years  before  this  time,  Lucius 
Posthumius  Megellns,  who  sprang  from  one  of  the  noblest 
houses  of  Rome,  and  had  been  thrice  Consul,  was  sent  am- 
bassador to  Tarentum,  with  charge  to  demand  reparation 
for  grievous  injuries.  The  Tarentines  gave  him  audience  in 
their  theatre,  where  he  addressed  them  in  such  Greek  as  he 
could  command,  which,  we  may  well  believe,  was  not  exactly 
such  as  Cineas  would  have  spoken.  An  exquisite  sense  of 
the  ridiculous  belonged  to  the  Greek  character ;  and  closely 
connected  with  this  faculty  was  a  strong  propensity  to 
flippancy  and  impertinence.  When  Posthumius  placed  an 
accent  wrong,  his  hearers  burst  into  a  laugh.  When  he 
remonstrated,  they  hooted  him,  and  called  him  barbarian ;  and 
at  length  hissed  him  off  the  stage  as  if  he  had  been  a  bad 
actor.  As  the  grave  Roman  retired,  a  buffoon,  who,  from 
his  constant  drunkenness,  was  named  the  Pint-pot,  came  up 
with  gestures  of  the  grossest  indecency,  and  bespattered  the 
senatorial  gown  with  filth.  Posthumius  turned  round  to 
the  multitude,  and  held  up  the  gown,  as  if  appealing  to  the 


THE     PROPHECY    OF    CAPYS.  179 

universal  law  of  nations.  The  sight  only  increased  the  inso- 
lence of  the  Tarentines.  They  clapped  their  hands,  and  set 
up  a  shout  of  laughter  which  shook  the  theatre.  "  Men  of 
Tarentum,"  said  Posthumius,  "it  will  take  not  a  little  blood 
to  wash  this  gown."* 

Rome,  in  consequence  of  this  insult,  declared  war  against 
the  Tarentines.  The  Tarentines  sought  for  allies  beyond  the 
Ionian  Sea.  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  came  to  their  help  with 
a  large  army  -,  and,  for  the  first  time,  the  two  great  nations  of 
antiquity  were  fairly  matched  against  each  other. 

The  fame  of  Greece  in  arms,  as  well  as  in  arts,  was  then 
at  the  height.  Half  a  century  earlier,  the  career  of  Alexander 
had  excited  the  admiration  and  terror  of  all  nations  from 
the  Ganges  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  Royal  houses,  founded 
by  Macedonian  captains,  still  reigned  at  Antioch  and  Alex- 
andria. That  barbarian  warriors,  led  by  barbarian  chiefs, 
should  win  a  pitched  battle  against  Greek  valor  guided  by 
Greek  science,  seemed  as  incredible  as  it  would  now  seem 
that  the  Burmese  or  the  Siamese  should,  in  the  open  plain, 
put  to  flight  an  equal  number  of  the  best  English  troops. 
The  Tarentines  were  convinced  that  their  countrymen  were 

*  Dion,  IIul.  Dc  Wationibus. 


180 


TiiK    rijoi'ii  re  V    of    rAi'vs. 


/s^.-"^^ 


irresistible  in  war;  and  this  conviction  had  emboldened  thorn 
to  treat  with  the  grossest  indignity  one  Avhom  they  regarded 
as  the  representative  of  an  inferior  race.  Of  the  Greek 
generals  then  living  Pyrrhus  was  indisputably  the  first. 
Among  the  troops  who  were  trained  in  the  Greek  discipline 
his  Epirotes  ranked  high.  His  expedition  to  Italy  was  a 
turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  world.  He  found  there 
a  people  who,  far  inferior  to  the  Athenians  and  Corinthians 


THE     PROPHECY    OF     CAP  YS.  181 

ill  the  fine  arts,  in  the  speculative  sciences,  and  in  all  the 
refinements  of  life,  were  the  best  soldiers  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Their  arms,  their  gradations  of  rank,  their  order  of 
battle,  their  method  of  intrenchment,  were  all  of  Latian 
origin,  and  had  all  been  gradually  brought  near  to  perfection, 
not  by  the  study  of  foreign  models,  but  by  the  genius  and 
experience  of  many  generations  of  great  native  commanders. 
The  first  words  which  broke  from  the  king,  when  his  prac- 
tised eye  had  surveyed  the  Eoman  encampment,  were  full  of 
meaning  : — "  These  barbarians,"  he  said,  "  have  nothing  bar- 
barous in  their  military  arrangements."  He  w'as  at  first 
victorious ;  for  his  own  talents  w^ere  superior  to  those  of 
the  captains  who  were  opposed  to  him ;  and  the  Romans 
were  not  prepared  for  the  onset  of  the  elephants  of  the  East, 
which  were  then  for  the  first  time  seen  in  Italy  —  moving 
mountains,  with  loivj:  snakes  for  hands.*  But  the  victories 
of  the  Epirotes  were  fiercely  disputed,  dearly  purchased,  and 
altogether  unprofitable.  At  length,  Manius  Curius  Dentatus, 
wdio  had  in  his  first  Consulship  won  two  triumphs,  was  again 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth,  and  sent 
to  encounter  the  invaders.     A  great  battle  Avas  fought  near 

*Aii(juim(innii  i,s  the  old  ]j;itiii  oiiitliet,  for  an  elephant.   Lucretius,  ii.  538,  v.  1.302. 


l<-2 


TllK     I'Koril  r.("  Y    (»F    cArvs. 


IWnevoiitum.  I'vnlms  uas  ooin})U'ti'lv  (lofcatcd.  lie  r(']i:isso(l 
tlu»  soa  ;  ami  tin.'  \vorl(l  Iranicd  ullh  amazciiu'iit,  that  a 
people  had  hoen  disiMUcivd.  w  ho.  in  lair  li,i:htiii!i\  \vere  siiiteriDr 
to  the  hest  troo})>  that  had  been  drilled  on  the  sy.steni  of  Tar- 
menio  and  Antigonus. 

The  conquerors  had  a  good  right  to  exult  in  their  success; 
lor  their  glory  Mas  all  their  own.  They  had  not  learned 
tVoni  their  enemy  how  to  conquer  him.  It  was  with  their 
own  national  arms,  and  in  their  own  national  battle-array, 
that  they  had  overcome  weapons  and  tactics  long  believed  to 
be  invincible.    The  pilum  and  the  broadsword  had  vanquished 


THE     PROPHECY    OF     CAPYS. 


183 


the  Macedonian  spear.  The  legion  had  broken  the  Mace- 
donian phalanx.  Even  the  elephants,  when  the  surprise  pro- 
duced by  their  first  appearance  was  over,  could  cause  no 
disorder  in  the  steady  yet  flexible  battalions  of  Rome. 

It  is  said  by  Florus,  and  may  easily  be  believed,  that  the 
triumph  far  surpassed  in  magnificence  any  that  Rome  had 
previously  seen.     The  only  spoils  which  Papirius  Cursor  and 


Fabius  Maximus  could  exhibit  were  flocks  and  herds,  wagons 
of  rude  structure,  and  heaps  of  sjDears  and  helmets.  But 
now,  for  the  first  time,  the  riches  of  Asia  and  the  arts  of 
Greece  adorned  a  Roman  pageant.  Plate,  fine  stuffs,  costly 
furniture,  rare  animals,  exquisite  paintings  and  sculptures, 
formed  part  of  the  procession.  At  the  banquet  would  be 
assembled  a  crowd  of  warriors  and  statesmen,  among  whom 
Manius  Curius  Dentatus  would  take  the  highest  room.  Caius 
Fabricius    Luscinus,    then,    after   two   Consulships   and   two 


1*^*  Tin:     I'l;!)!'!!  KC  Y     OF     C  A  P  Y  S. 

triiiinplis,  ConsDi'  of  tlu*  ('oininonwoaltli.  would  douhtk'jss 
ocoiipN  a  jihuo  of  honor  at  tlu'  hoard.  hi  situations  less 
conspicuous  probahly  lay  some  of  those  who  were,  a  Jew 
\ears  later,  the  terror  t)!' Carthaiie  ;  Caius  Duilius,  the  founder 
of  the  maritime  iireatness  of  his  country;  ^Marcus  Atilius 
Kogulus.  who  owed  to  defeat  a  renown  far  luLiher  than  that 
which  he  had  derived  from  his  victories ;  and  Caius  Lutatius 
Catulus,  who.  while  suffering  from  a  grievous  wound,  fought 
the  great  battle  of  *the  ^Egates,  and  brought  the  First  Punic 
War  to  a  triumphant  close.  It  is  impossible  to  recount  the 
names  of  these  eminent  citizens,  without  reflecting  that  they 
were  all,  without  exception.  Plebeians,  and  would,  but  for 
the  ever  memorable  struggle  maintained  by  Caius  Licinius 
and  Lucius  Sextius,  have  been  doomed  to  hide  in  obscurity, 
or  to  waste  in  civil  broils,  the  capacity  and  energy  which 
prevailed  against  Pyrrhus  and  Hamilcar. 

On  such  a  day  we  ma\-  suppose  that  the  patriotic  enthu- 
siasm of  a  Latin  poet  would  vent  itself  in  reiterated  shouts 
of  lo  triumplie,  such  as  were  uttered  by  Horace  on  a  far  less 
exciting  occasion,  and  in  boasts  resembling  those  which  Virgil 
put  into  the  mouth  of  Anchises.  The  superiority  of  some 
foreign  nations,  and  especially  of  the  Greeks,  in  the  lazy  arts 
of  peace,   would    be   admitted   with  disdainful   candor;    but 


THE    PROPHECY    OF    CAPYS. 


185 


pre-eminence  in  all  the  qualities  which  fit  a  people  to  subdue 
and  govern  mankind  would  be  claimed  for  the  Romans. 

The  following  lay  belongs  to  the  latest  age  of  Latin  ballad- 
poetry.  NaBvius  and  Livius  Andronicus  were  probably  among 
the  children  whose  mothers  held  them  up  to  see  the  chariot 
of  Curius  go  by.  The  minstrel  who  sang  on  that  day  might 
possibly  have  lived  to  read  the  first  hexameters  of  Ennius, 
and  to  see  the  first  comedies  of  Plautus.  His  poem,  as  might 
be  expected,  shows  a  much  wider  acquaintance  with  the 
geography,  manners,  and  productions  of  remote  nations,  than 
would  have  been  found  in  compositions  of  the  age  of  Camillus. 
But  he  troubles  himself  little  about  dates  ;  and  having  heard 
travellers  talk  with  admiration  of  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  and 
of  the  structures  and  gardens  with  which  the  Macedonian 
kings  of  Syria  had  embellished  their  residence  on  the  banks 
of  the  Orontes,  he  has  never  thought  of  inquiring  whether 
these  things  existed  in  the  age  of  Romulus. 


24 


ROMTE 


1 


.ORDIA. 


THE  PROPHECY  OF  CAPYS. 

A  LAY  SUNG  AT  THE  BANQUET  IN  THE  CAPITOL,  ON  THE 
DAY  WHEREON  MANIUS  CURIUS  DENTATUS,  A  SECOND  TIME 
CONSUL,  TRIUMPHED  OVER  KING  PYRRHUS  AND  THE 
TAKENTINES,    IN   THE    YEAR   OF   THE    CITY   CCCCLXXIX. 


^'1 


■ 


LJ 


I. 

Now  slain  is  King  Amulius, 
Of  the  great  Sylvian  line, 

Who  reigned  in  All)a  Longa, 
On  the  throne  of  Aventine. 

Slain  is  the  Pontiif  Gamers, 
Who  spake  the  words  of  doom ; 


"The  chiltlriMi  to  the  Tilx-r, 
'i'lu-  mother  to  tho  toml»." 

ir. 
In  Alba's  hike  no  fislicr 

His  net  to-day  is  flinging : 
On  tlie  dark  rind  of  Alba's  oaks 

To-day  no  axe  is  ringing : 
The  yoke  hangs  o'er  the  manger : 

The  scythe  lies  in  the  hay : 
Through  all  the  Alban  villages 

No  work  is  done  to-day. 

III. 
And  every  Alban  burgher 

Hath  donned  his  whitest  gown  ; 
And  every  head  in  Alba 

"VVeareth  a  poplar  crown ; 
And  every  Alban  door-post 

With  houghs  and  flowers  is  gay : 
For  to-day  the  dead  are  li\dng ; 

The  lost  are  found  to-day. 

IV. 
They  were  doomed  hy  a  bloody  king  : 
They  were  doomed  by  a  lying  priest 


They  were  cast  on  the  raging  flood : 
They  were  tracked  by  the  raging  beast 

Raging  beast  and  raging  flood 
Alike  have  spared  the  prey ; 

And  to-day  the  dead  are  living  : 
The  lost  are  found  to-day. 


V. 
The  IrouliU'tl  river  knew  tluMii, 

Ami  siuoiitlu'd  liis  vdlow  t'oaiii. 
Ami  irontly  rDi-ki-il  the  c'r:i<llc 

Tliiit  l>iire  tlio  f";ite  of  Konu'. 
Tlu'  r;ivoiiiii;j;  sho-wolt"  knew  them, 

And  Ik'kctl  them  o'er  aiul  o'er, 
And  ffavt'  them  of  lier  own  fierce  milk 

Rich  ■with  ruAV  iiesh  and  <:ore. 
Twenty  winters,  twenty  sprinf^s, 

Since  then  have  rolled  away; 
And  to-day  the  dead  are  living: 

The  lost  are  found  to-day. 

VI. 
Blithe  it  was  to  see  the  twins, 

Right  goodly  youths  and  tall, 
Marching  from  Alha  Longa 

To  their  old  grandsire's  hall. 
Along  their  path  fresh  garlands 

Are  hung  from  tree  to  tree : 
Before  them  stride  the  pipers, 

Piping  a  note  of  glee. 

VII. 
On  the  right  goes  Romulus, 
With  arms  to  the  elhows  red. 


And  in  liis  hand  a  broadsword, 

And  on  the  blade  a  head — 
A  head  in  an  iron  helmet, 

With  horse-hair  hanging  down, 
A  shaggy  head,  a  swarthy  head, 

Fixed  in  a  ghastly  frown — 
The  head  of  King  Amulius 

Of  the  great  Sylvian  line, 
Who  reigned  in  Alba  Longa, 

On  the  throne  of  Aventiuc. 


Vlll. 
On  tlio  h>ft  side  j^oos  lu'imis, 

W"\{]\  wrists  ami  fuigors  ro(l. 
Ami  in  his  hand  a  boar-spcar, 

And  on  tlic  point  a  head — 
,V  wrinkled  head  and  aged, 

"With  silver  beard  and  hair, 

;  And  holly  fillets  round  it, 

I 

I  Such  as  the  pontiffs  wear — 

The  head  of  aneient  Gamers, 

I  Who  spake  the  words  of  doom  : 

I  "  The  children  to  the  Tiber  ; 

:  The  mother  to  the  tomb." 

I 

I 

IX. 

Two  and  two  behind  the  twins 

Their  trusty  comrades  go, 
Four-and-forty  valiant  men, 
;  With  club,  and  axe,  and  bow. 

'  On  each  side  every  hamlet 

Pours  forth  its  joyous  crowd, 
Shouting  lads  and  baying  dogs, 

And  children  laughing  loud, 
And  old  men  weeping  fondly 

As  Rhea's  boys  go  by, 
And  maids  who  shriek  to  see  the  heads. 

Yet,  shrieking,  press  more  nigh. 


So  tliey  marcliecl  along  the  lake ; 

They  marched  by  fold  and  stall, 
By  corn-field  and  hy  vineyard 

Unto  the  old  man's  hall. 


XI. 

In  the  hall-gate  sat  Capys, 

Capys,  the  sightless  seer  ; 
From  head  to  foot  he  trembled 

As  Romulus  drew  near. 
And  up  stood  stiff  his  thin  white  hair, 

And  his  blind  eyes  flashed  fire : 
Hail !  foster  child  of  the  Avonderous  nurse  I 

Hail !  son  of  the  wonderous  sire. 


■i  V  ^ 


5-'i.  ^'A  I', 


MI. 
•    r>iit   tli"U — wliat  ilci>t  tliitii  liclH' 

111  till-  old  iiiMii's  jicact'l'iil  liall? 
AVlial  <l(itli  tlu>  ca^lc  in  tlu-  i'iM>|t, 

Tho  bison  in  tlu-  stall? 
(hir  corn  fills  nmny  a  Lrarnor; 

(.)ur  vini's  clasj)  many  a  \vvc  : 
Our  Hocks  arc  Avliitc  on  many  a  liill  ; 

lint  these  arc  not  for  tlicc. 

xiir, 
"For  tliee  no  treasure  ripens 

In  the  Tartcssian  mine  : 
For  tliee  no  sliij)  brings  precious  bales 

Across  the  Libyan  brine  : 
Thou  shalt  not  drink  from  amber ; 

Thou  shalt  not  rest  on  down  ; 
-Vrabia  shall  not  steep  tln^  locks, 

Xor  Sidon  tinge  thy  gown. 

XIV. 

"Leave  gold  and  myrrh  and  jewels, 

Rich  table  and  soft  bed, 
To  them  who  of  man's  seed  are  born, 

"Whom  woman's  milk  hath  fed. 


w: 


Thou  Avast  not  made  for  lucre, 

For  pleasure,  nor  for  rest ; 
Thou,  that  art  sprung  from  the  War-god's  loins, 

And  hast  tufro;ed  at  the  she-wolf's  breast. 

Co 


XV. 

"From  sunrise  unto  sunset 

All  earth  shall  hear  thy  fame  :: 
A  glorious  citj  thou  shalt  build, 

And  name  it  by  thy  name : 
And  there,  un quenched  through  agcs^ 

Like  Vesta's  sacred  fire, 
Sliall  live  the  spirit  of  tliy  nurse, 

The  spirit  of  tliy  sire. 


\VI. 


•TIu'  i>\  toils  tliroiiixh  the  rminw, 

( >ln-tlii-iit  to  till-  jxoatl ; 
The  iiMtiriit  ass,  iip  lliiitv  |iatlis. 

IM'xls  \\ill.  Ills  wv.wy  load  : 
With  \\liim'  and  IkuukI  the'  sjtanicl 

His  master's  Avliistlo  licars  ; 
Ami  the  shoi'i*  yicMs  hi^T  jiaticntlv 

To  the  loud-cla.shiug  shears. 

XVII. 

"But  thy  nurse  ^vill  hear  no  master. 

Thy  nurse  will  bear  no  joail : 
And  woe  to  them  that  shear  hei% 

And  woe  to  them  that  goad  ! 
"When  all  the  pack,  loud  haying, 

Her  bloody  lair  surrounds, 
She  dies  in  silence,  biting  hard, 

Amidst  the  dN'ing  hountls. 

xviir. 

''I'oniona  loves  the  orchard; 

And  Jjiber  loves  the  vine  ; 
And  Pales  loves  the  straw-built  shed 

AVarm  with  the  breath  of  kine. 


V^'^ 


And  Venus  love.s  the  Avliispers 
Of  })liglited  youth  and  maid, 

In  April's  ivory  moonlight, 
Beneath  the  chestnut  shade. 

XIX. 

"  But  thy  father  loves  the  clashing 

Of  broadsword  and  of  shield : 
He  loves  to  drink  the  steam  that  reeks 

From  the  fresh  battle-field  : 
He  smiles  a  smile  more  dreadful 

Than  his  own  dreadful  froAvn, 
When  he  sees  the  thick  black  cloud  of 
smoke 

Go  up  from  the  conquered  town. 


.issa 


c:v:l.:o 


"Ami  such  ;is  is  tlic  \\':ir-;r"<1. 

Till*  aiitliur  nf  i\[\   line. 
And  siH'li  as  she  who  siickhd  ihii 

l']\cii  such  ])c  tlittu  ami  tliim.'. 
Lcavt*  In  the  soft  ('am|iaiiiaii 

1  lis  haths  ami  his  jx'ii'uiiics ; 
Leave  tn  the  sordid  race  of  Tyre 

'i'licir  dyeiii;x-vats  and  Iooujs  : 
Leave  to  the  sons  of  Carthajic 

The  rudder  and  the  oar  : 
Leave  to  tlie  Greek  his  niarlde 
Kymjdis, 

And  serolls  of  wordlv  hire. 


XXI. 

''  Thine,  Roman,  is  the  pilnm, 

Roman,  the  swoivl  is  thine, 
The  even  trench,  the  hristling  mound 

The  legion's  ordered  line; 
And  thine  the  wheels  of  triumjili, 

AVhich  -with  their  laurelled  train 
Move  slowly  uj)  the  shouting  streets 

To  Jove's  eternal  fane. 


SPOHA 
OPIMA 


XXII. 

"Beneath  tliy  joke  the  Volscian 

Shall  vail  his  loft j  broAv : 
Soft  Capua's  curled  revellers 

Before  thy  chairs  shall  boAv: 
The  Lucumoes  of  Arnus 

Shall  quake  thy  rods  to  see ; 
And  the  proud  Samnite's  heart  of  steel 

Shall  yield  to  only  thee. 

XXIII. 

"  The  Gaul  shall  come  against  thee, 
From  the  land  of  snow  and  night : 

Thou  shalt  give  his  fair-haired  armies 
To  the  raven  and  the  kite. 

XXIV. 

"  The  Greek  shall  come  against  thee, 
The  conqueror  of  the  East. 

Beside  him  stalks  to  battle 

The  huge  earth-shaking  beast, 


S; 


-4^* 


Tlu"  l>»'a>t  oil  wliniii  llu"  c.istlr 

With  all  its  L'nar«ls  dolli  staiitl. 
Tlio  hcast  wholiatli  lutwfcii  liis  <'Vfs 

riie  siTpiMit  l"or  a  liaml. 
First  iiianli  tin-  Imlil  Epirotcs, 

Wo«l^cd  close  with  sliiol"l  and  spear  : 
Ami  the  ranks  of  false  'rareiitinu 

Are  glittorini:  in  the  rear. 

XXV. 

••  The  ranks  of  false  Tarentuni 

Like  hunted  sheej)  shall  lly  : 
In  vain  the  bold  Epirotcs 

Shall  round  their  standards  die  : 
And  Apennine's  gray  vultures 

Shall  have  a  noble  feast 
On  the  fat  and  the  eyes 

Of  the  liuge  earth-shaking  beast. 


t"* 


XXVI. 

*'  Hurrah  1  for  the  good  weapons 
That  keep  the  War-god's  land, 

Hurrah  !  for  Rome's  stout  pilum 
In  a  stout  Roman  hand. 


Ht;.^>- 


Hurrali !    for    Rome's    sliort  broad- 
sword, 

That  through  the  thick  array 
Of  levelled  spears  and  serried  shields 

Hews  deep  its  gory  way. 

XXVII. 

"  Hurrah  !  for  the  great  triumph 

That  stretches  many  a  mile. 
Hurrah  !  for  the  wan  captives 

That  pass  in  endless  file. 
Ho  !  bold  Epirotes,  whither 

Plath  the  Red  Kins;  ta'en  flight  ? 
Ho  !  dogs  of  false  Tarentum. 

Is  not  the  gOAvn  Avashed  Avliite  ? 

XXVIII. 

"  Hurrah  !  for  the  great  triumph 

That  stretches  many  a  mile. 
Hurrah !  for  the  rich  dye  of  Tyre 

And  the  fine  web  of  Nile, 
The  helmets  gay  Avith  {dum^^ge. 

Torn  from  the  pheasant's  wings. 
The  belts  set  thick  with  starry  gems 

That  shone  on  Indian  kings. 


The  urns  of  massy  silver, 

The  goblets  rougli  with  gold, 
The  manj-colored  tablets  bright 

With  loves  and  wars  of  old, 
The  stone  that  breathes  and  struggles, 

The  brass  that  seems  to  speak  ; — 
Such  cunning  thcj  who  dwell  on  high 

Have  given  unto  the  Greek. 


XXIX. 
"  Hurrah  !  for  Manius  Curius, 

The  bravest  son  of  Rome, 
Thrice  in  utmost  need  sent  forth, 

Thrice  drawn  in  triumph  home. 
Weave,  weave,  for  Manius  Curius 

The  third  embroidered  gown  : 
Make  ready  the  third  lofty  car, 

And  twine  the  third  green  crown, 
And  yoke  the  steeds  of  Rosea 

"With  necks  like  a  bonded  bow ; 
And  deck  the  bull,  Mevania's  bull,     ^^^ 
The  bull  as  white  as  snow. 


^^^5^2i\ 


XXX. 

"Blest  aiiil  tliricc  Mcst  the  Kuiuan 

AVlio  8CCS  Rome's  brightest  day, 
AVbo  sees  that  hmg  Aictorions  pomp 

"Wind  down  the  Sacred  Way, 
And  through  tlie  bellowing  Forum, 

And  round  the  Suppliant's  Grove, 
Up  to  the  everlasting  gates 

Of  Capitolian  Jove. 


'  i«a  a  2.  p- 


XXXI. 

"  Then  where,  o'er  two  bright  havens. 

The  towers  of  Corinth  frown  ; 
Where  the  gigantic  King  of  Day 

On  his  own  Rhodes  looks  down  : 
Where  soft  Orontes  murmurs 

Beneath  the  hiurel  shades  : 
Where  Nile  reflects  the  endless  length 

Of  dark-red  colonnades ; 
Where  in  the  still  deep  Mater. 

Sheltered  from  waves  and  blasts. 
Bristles  the  dusky  forest 

Of  Byrsa's  thousand  masts  ; 
Where  fur-clad  hunters  wander 

Amidst  the  northern  ice  ; 
Where  through  the  sand  of  morning-land 

The  camel  bears  the  spice ; 
Where  Atlas  flings  his  shadow 

Far  o'er  tlie  western  foam, 
Shall  be  great  fear  on  all  wlio  liear 

The  mighty  name  of  Rome." 


/.?•, 


sejaKHJ 


it*  t\ 

m 


fe 


i^ 


I  V  R  Y; 


A    SONG    OF   THE    HUGUENOTS. 


I  V  R  Y. 


Now  glory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  from  whom  all  glories  are  ! 

And  glory  to  our  Sovereign  Liege,  King  Henry  of  Navarre  ! 

Now  let  there  be  the  merry  sound  of  music  and  of  dance, 

Through  thy  corn-fields  green,  and  smmy  vines,  oh  pleasant  land  of 

France  ! 
And  thou,  Rochelle,  our  own  Rochelle,  proud  city  of  the  waters. 
Again  let  rapture  light  the  eyes  of  all  thy  mourning  daughters. 
As'thou  wert  constant  in  our  ills,  be  joyous  in  our  joy. 
For  cold,  and  stiff,  and  still  are  they  who  wrought  thy  walls  annoy. 
Hurrali !  Hurrah  !  a  single  field  hath  turned  the  chance  of  Avar, 
Hurrah  !  Hurrah  !  for  Ivry,  and  Henry  of  Navarre. 

Oh  !  how  our  hearts  were  beating,  when,  at  the  dawn  of  day. 
We  saw  the  army  of  the  League  drawn  out  in  long  array : 
With  all  its  priest-led  citizens,  and  all  its  rebel  peers, 
And  Appenzcl's  stout  infantry,  and  Egmont's  Flemish  s])ears. 

27 


'2\0  ivky: 

There  rodo  the  lu-tn^d  of  i';ilM'  Lorraine,  the  eurses  of  our  land  ; 
And  dark  Mayenni-  vas  in  the  midst,  a  truneheon  in  liis  hand: 
And,  as  Ave  h»oked  on  them,  >ve  tliought  of  Seine's  cmpurjtled  flood, 
And  good  Coligni's  hoary  hair  all  dabbled  Avith  his  blood ; 
And  we  cried  luito  the  living  God,  Avho  rnles  the  fate  of  ^var, 
To  fight  for  his  own  holy  name,  and  Henry  of  Navarre. 

The  King  is  come  to  marshal  us,  in  all  his  armor  drcst, 

And  he  has  bomid  a  snow-white  plume  upon  his  gallant  crest. 

He  looked  upon  his  people,  and  a  tear  Avas  in  his  eye ; 

lie  looked  upon  the  traitors,  and  liis  glance  was  stern  and  high. 

Right  graciously  he  smiled  on  us,  as  rolled  from  wing  to  wing, 

Down  all  our  line,  a  deafening  shout,  "  God  save  our  Lord  the  King." 

•'  And  if  my  standard-bearer  fall,  as  fall  full  well  he  may. 

For  never  saw  I  promise  yet  of  such  a  bloody  fray. 

Press  where  ye  see  my  white  plume  shine,  amidst  the  ranks  of  war. 

And  be  your  oriflamme  to-day  the  helmet  of  Navarre." 

Hurrah  !  the  foes  are  moving.     Hark  to  the  mingled  din, 
Of  fife,  and  steed,  and  trump,  and  drum,  and  roaring  culverin. 
The  fiery  Duke  is  pricking  fast  across  Saint  Andre's  plain, 
"With  all  the  hireling  chivalry  of  Gueldcrs  and  Almayne. 
Now  by  the  lips  of  those  ye  love,  fair  gentlemen  of  France, 
Charge  for  the  golden  lilies, — upon  them  with  the  lance. 


A    SONG    OF    THE     HUGUENOTS.  211 

A  thousand  spurs  are  striking  deep,  a  thousand  spears  in  rest, 
A  thousand  knights  are  pressing  close  behind  the  snow-white  crest ; 
And  in  thej  burst,  and  on  they  rushed,  while,  like  a  guiding  star. 
Amidst  the  thickest  carnage  blazed  the  helmet  of  Navarre. 

Now,  God  be  praised,  the  day  is  ours.     Mayenne  hath  turned  his  rein. 

D'Aumale  hath  cried  for  quarter.     The  Flemish  count  is  slain. 

Their  ranks  are  breaking  like  thin  clouds  before  a  Biscay  gale ; 

The  field  is  heaped  with  bleeding  steeds,  and  flags,  and  cloven  mail. 

And  then  Ave  thought  on  vengeance,  and,  all  along  our  van, 

"  Kemember  Saint  Bartholomew,"  was  passed  from  man  to  man. 

But  out  spake  gentle  Henry,  "No  Frenchman  is  my  foe: 

Down,  down,  with  every  foreigner,  but  let  your  brethren  go." 

Oh  !  was  there  ever  such  a  knight,  in  friendship  or  in  war. 

As  our  Sovereign  Lord,  King  Henry,  the  soldier  of  Navarre  ? 

Right  well  fought  all  the  Frenchmen  who  fought  for  France  to-day ; 

And  many  a  lordly  banner  God  gave  them  for  a  prey. 

But  we  of  the  religion  have  borne  us  best  in  fight ; 

And  the  good  Lord  of  Rosny  hath  ta'en  the  cornet  Avhite. 

Our  own  true  Maximilian  the  cornet  Avhitc  hath  ta'en. 

The  cornet  white  with  crosses  black,  the  flag  of  f^ilsc  Lorraine. 

Up  witli  it  liigh;  unfurl  it  wide  ;^  tliat  all  tlie  host  may  know 

How  God  hath  humlded  the  proud  house  wliich  wrought  his  church  sucli 

AVOC. 


-1-  IVKV:     A     SON  (J     OF     TIIK     II  U  C  T  K  N  OTS. 

'riien  on  the  «jroun(l,  wliiK-  trimipcts  smunl  ilicii-  lomlrst  i»(iiiit  dl"  wai- 
Fliuir  the  ivd  shrotls,  a  looti-lotli  iiun-t  lor  Ilciiry  dt"  Navarre. 


llo  !  luaiilens  of  \  iciiiia  ;   ]I<)  I   matrons  of  Luti-rm-  ; 

Woi'p,  weop.  ami  roml  your  liair  for  those  Avlio  never  sliall  return. 

Ho  I  rhilip.  send,  for  ehnrity,  thy  ]Mc.\iean  pistoles, 

That  Antwerp  monks  uia^'  sing  a  mass  for  thy  poor  spearmen's  souls. 

1  lo  !  gallant  nohles  of  the  League,  look  that  your  arms  he  hright ; 

Ho  !  hurghers  of  Saint  Geuevicvc,  keep  wateh  and  -ward  to-night. 

For  our  God  hath  crushed  the  tj'rant,  our  God  hatli  raised  the  slave, 

And  mocked  the  counsel  of  the  wise,  and  the  valor  of  tlie  l^rave. 

The  glory  to  his  holy  name,  from  whom  all  glories  arc ; 

And  glory  to  our  Sovereign  Lord,  King  Henry  of  Navarre. 


THE    ARMADA 


A    FRAGMENT. 


THE    A  EM  A  DA. 


Attend,  all  ye  who  list  to  hear  our  noble  England's  praise ; 
I  tell  of  the  thrice  famous  deeds  she  wrought  in  ancient  days, 
When  that  great  fleet  invincible  against  her  bore  in  vain 
The  richest  spoils  of  Mexico,  the  stoutest  hearts  of  Spain. 

It  was  about  the  lovely  close  of  a  warm  summer  day, 
There  came  a  gallant  merchant-ship  full  sail  to  Plymouth  Bay ; 
Her  crew  hath  seen  Castile's  black  fleet,  beyond  Aurigny's  isle, 
At  earliest  twilight,  on  the  waves  lie  heaving  many  a  mile. 
At  sunrise  she  escaped  their  van,  by  God's  especial  grace  ; 
And  the  tall  Pinta,  till  the  noon,  had  held  her  close  in  chase. 
Forthwith  a  guard  at  every  gun  was  placed  along  the  wall ; 
The  beacon  blazed  upon  the  roof  of  Edgecumbc's  lofty  hall ; 
Many  a  light  fishing  bark  put  out  to  pry  along  the  coast, 
And  with  loose  rein  and  bloody  spur  rode  inland  many  a  post. 
With  his  white  hair  unbonneted,  the  stout  old  sheriff  comes  ; 
Behind  him  march  the  halberdiers;  before  him  sound  the  drums 


''  Til  i:      \  K  M  A  !»  A  : 

His  voonuMi  round  tlu>  inarkrt  noss  make  clcai'  an  aiiijilc  sjiacc; 

For  there  behoves  him  to  set  np  tlie  stainhntl  of  Jlrr  (irac(>. 

Aiul  haiijihtilv  the  tniiiijiels  jieal,  ami  ;rail_v  (hiiiee  the  hell>. 

As  sliAV  upon  the  hihoiiiii:  \\\\u\  tlie  roval  lihi/.oii  swells. 

Look  how  the  Lion  of  tlie  sea  lifts  up  his  ancient  ei'own. 

And  underneath  his  deadly  ])aw  treads  the  <ray  lilies  down. 

So  stalked  lie  when  he  turned  to  flight,  on  that  famed  l*ieard  field, 

Bohcmia\s  plume,  and  Genoa's  bow,  and  C;vsar's  eagle  shield. 

So  glared  he  when  at  Agineourt  in  wrath  he  turned  to  bay. 

And  crushed  and  torn  beneath  his  claws  the  princely  hunters  lay. 

IIo  !  strike  the  flag-staflF  deep,  Sir  Knight:  ho  !   scatter  flowers,  fair 

maids : 
Ho  I  gunners,  lire  a  loud  salute:  ho!  gallants,  draw  your  blades: 
Thou  sun,  shine  on  her  joyously  ;  ye  breezes,  Avaft  her  wide  : 
Our  glorious  semper  EADEM,  the  l)ainier  of  our  pride. 
The  freshening  breeze  of  eve  unfurled  that  banner's  massy  fold ; 
The  parting  gleam  of  sunshine  kissed  that  haughty  scroll  of  gold  : 
Night  sank  upon  the  dusky  beach,  and  on  the  purple  sea. 
Such  night  in  England  ne'er  had  been,  nor  e'er  again  shall  be. 
From  Eddystone  to  Berwick  bounds,  from  Lynn  to  Milford  Bay. 
That  time  of  slumber  was  as  bright  and  busy  as  the  day ; 
For  swift  to  east  and  swift  to  Avest  the  ghastly  war-flame  spread, 
High  on  St.  Michael's  Mount  it  shone :  it  shone  on  Bcachy  Head. 
Far  on  the  deep  the  Spaniard  saw,  along  each  southern  shire, 
Cape  beyond  cape,  in  endless  range,  those  twinkling  points  of  fire. 


A    FRAGMENT.  217 

The  fisher  left  his  skiff  to  rock  on  Tamar's  glitterinor  waves : 
The  rugged  miners  poured  to  war  from  Mendip's  sunless  caves : 
O'er  Longleat's  towers,  o'er  Cranbourne's  oaks,  the  fiery  herald  flew  : 
He  roused  the  Shepherds  of  Stonehenge,  the  rangers  of  Beaulieu. 
Right  sharp  and  quick  the  bells  all  night  rang  out  from  Bristol  town. 
And  ere  the  day  three  hundred  horse  had  met  on  Clifton  down ; 
The  sentinel  on  Whitehall  gate  looked  forth  into  the  night. 
And  saw  o'erhanging  Richmond  Hill  the  streak  of  blood-red  light. 
Then  bugle's  note  and  cannon's  roar  the  deathlike  silence  broke, 
And  with  one  start,  and  with  one  cry,  the  royal  city  woke. 
At  once  on  all  her  stately  gates  arose  the  answering  fires : 
At  once  the  wild  alarum  clashed  from  all  lier  reeling  spires ; 
From  all  the  batteries  of  the  Tower  pealed  loud  the  voice  of  fear ; 
And  all  the  thousand  masts  of  Thames  sent  back  a  louder  cheer : 
And  from  the  furthest  wards  was  heard  the  rush  of  hurrying  feet, 
And  the  broad  streams  of  ])ikes  and  flags  rushed  down  each  roaring- 
street  ; 
And  broader  still  became  the  blaze,  and  louder  still  the  din. 
As  fast  from  every  village  round  the  horse  came  spurring  in  : 
And  eastward  straight  from  wild  Blackheath  the  warlike  errand  went. 
And  roused  in  many  an  ancient  hall  the  gallant  squires  of  Kent. 
Southward  from   Surrey's  pleasant  hills  flew  those   bright  couriers 

forth  ; 
High  on  bleak  Hampstead's  swarthy  moor  they  started  for  tlie  north  ; 
And  on,  and  on,  without  a  pause,  untired  tlioy  bounded  still : 


■  I*'  TH  i:     A  K  M  A  I)  A. 

All  nijiht  from  t*»wcr  to  tuwrr  tlicy  spraii;^  ;   tlicy  spraiii;  iVdiii   liill  to 

hill : 
Till  tho  prou'l  peak  unfurU-d  tlir  fla;^  *^  i*i'  Parwiiis  rocky  dales. 
Till  like  volcanoes  flared  to  heaven  tlie  stormy  hills  of  AVales, 
Till  twelve  fair  counties  saw  the  l)laze  on  Malvern's  lonely  height, 
Till  streamed  in  crimson  on  the  wind  the  Wrckin's  crest  of  light, 
Till  hroad  and  fierce  the  stiir  came  forth  on  Ely's  stately  fane, 
And  tower  and  hamlet  rose  in  arras  o'er  all  the  boundless  plain  ; 
Till  Belvoir's  lordly  terraces  the  sign  to  Lincoln  sent, 
And  Lincoln  sped  the  message  on  o'er  the  wide  vale  of  Trent ; 
Till  Skiddaw  saw  the  fire  that  burned  on  Gaunt's  embattled  pile, 
And  the  red  glare  on  Skiddaw  roused  the  burghers  of  Carlisle. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Note. — The  coins,  when  not  otherwise  specified,  have  been  draivn  from 
the  originals  in  the  British  Museum.  Each  ilhistration  not  included  in 
the  following  list  is  the  invention  of  the  artist,  George  Scharf,  Jr. 


Page. 

3.  Ornamental  Title. — xi  very  ancient  bronze  statue  of  the  Wolf  and 
TAvins,  in  the  Etruscan  style,  preserved  in  the  Capitol  at  Rome. 
Two  Sibyls,  engraved  by  Marc  Antonio,  from  designs  by  Raphael. 

0.  Early  coin  of  the  Licinian  family,  on  which  the  sons  of  Brutus  are 
seen  guarded  by  lictors. 

35.  Civic  wreath,  and  head  of  Codes,  from  a  Roman  denarius. 

37.  The  reverse  of  a  coin  of  Antoninus  Pius,  in  the  Museum  at  Paris. 

42.  Head  of  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  from  Visconti's  Iconographie 
Romaine.  On  the  left  is  the  reverse  of  a  coin  of  Marcus  Brutus. 
The  other  coin  is  also  of  Marcus  Brutus,  Avith  his  OAvn  head  and 
that  of  his  predecessor,  Lucius  Junius  Brutus. 

50.  From  a  design  by  Polidoro  Caravaggio. 

61.  From  a  gem  in  the  Museum  Florentinum,  published  by  Gori. 

79.  A  coin  of  Bruttium,  representing  the  Dioscuri  announcing  the 
victory. 

81.  Aulus  Postumius  Regillensis,  from  a  coin  of  the  Postumian  family. 


-20  LIST     OK     1  I.I.r  STi;  A  TION  s. 

ho.   Till'    l>rl|»liii'   ttrai'lo.   a    Iciiialc    (•(in^ulliii::    Aimllu.    IVdiii    Sir    W . 

Hamilton's  vases. 
K4.   Miu'ius   So:vviila,  from  an  aiitii|U('  irciii    in  the  l-'ldit'iitiiii'  Miix'imi, 
j  |nililishril  Ity  iJori. 

!  S."».   CKolia  cT(>ssin<;  the  TiKir.  tViMii  an  cii^'raviii^  l»y  IJuiiasoni,  iiivi'iiU-d 

i  by  Uapharl. 

8(.5.  The   fi^ht  rountl   tlio   Itody  of  Patroclus,  frttm  a  ]»aiiitc(l   vase  j)ul>- 

lishe.l  l.y  Millin. 
m.  The  Saliau  ])ri(.'sts  boarin;^  the  sacred   aueilia,  from  a  east  of  tlie 

gem  in  the  Florentine  Museum.     Sec  p.  48  and  p.  135. 
!•.'>.   From  the  Partlienon  frieze. 
KH.  E-.»p;le's  nest,  from  a  sculpture  in  the  A'^atican  Museum. 
\'2[K  Coin  of  Laccdiemon  with  the  Dioscuri,  engraved  b\'  Millin. 

loT.  Two  early  Roman  coins  representing  the  Dioscuri  with  their  horses. 
,  The  centre  is  from  a  bas-relief  in  the  Spada  collection  at  ]^lnle. 

130.  From  a  cast  of  a  gem  in  Rome. 

141.   Roman  tomb,  from  Santi  Bartoli. 

1  •"'■'.   Lucretia  stabbing  herself,  from  the  drawing  by  Raphael,  engraved 
under  his  own  inspection  by  Marc  Antonio. 

lT-'».  The  Goddess  Rome  seated,  from  the  column  of  Antoninus  Pius,  in 

the  Vatican. 
1^0.  A  statue  in  the  Capitol  at  Rome,  supposed  to  be  Pyrrhus.     The 

head  on  the  coin  is  considered  by  Visconti,  to  represent  Pyrrhus. 

On  the  reverse  is  Thetis  with  armor  for  Achilles. 

182.  An  example  of  Macedonian  spears,  in  a  fragment  of  the  celebrated 

mosaic   from  Pompeii  representing  Alexander   the    Great   and 
Darius,  preserved  in  the  Museum  at  Naples. 

183.  Wagons  of  rude  structure,  with  spoils,  &c.,  from  the  Arch  of  Scp- 

timius  Sevcrus  at  Rome,  engraved  by  Santi  Bartoli. 
185.  Regal  Macedonian  coin. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  221 

Page. 

187.  The  divine  origin  of  Rome.  Mars  descending  to  Rhea,  from  the 
reverse  of  a  medal  of  Antoninus  Pius.  The  military  standards 
are  from  Trajan's  column. 

189.  Two  bas-reliefs  from  the  sides  of  an  altar  preserved  in  the  Vatican 
Museum. 

193.  The  Prophet,  from  the  Vatican  Virgil,  engraved  by  Bartoli. 

194.  From  the  baths  of  Titus. 

195.  A  banquet,  from  Micali. 

196.  From  Pompeii,  with  the  reverse  of  a  coin  of  Commodus. 

197.  A  town  on  fire,  from  a  cartoon  in  the  Louvre,  by  Giulio  Romano. 

The  fruit  from  Raphael's  Loggie  in  the  Vatican. 

198.  Left  column. — A  coin  of  Campania,     A  coin  of  Tyre,  bearing  the 

divinities  Apollo  and  Hercules,  and,  between  them,  the  murex 
which  produced  the  celebrated  dye.  The  Duilian  column,  erected 
to  commemorate  the  earliest  naval  victory  of  the  Romans,  over 
the  Carthaginians,  260  b.  c,  recently  engraved  by  Canina.  A 
Roman  general  jiresenting  the  aplustre  to  a  female  representing 
Africa. 

RigJit  column. — Romulus  bearing  the  first  spolia  opima,  the  arms 
of  Acron,  king  of  the  Caeninenses,  whom  he  slew  in  battle,  from 
a  cast  of  the  gem  in  the  Florentine  Museum.  A  coin  of  the 
Cornelia  gens,  representing  A.  Cornelius  Cossus  as  victorious, 
having  slain  Lars  Tolumnius,  king  of  the  Veientes,  and  bearing 
the  second  spolia  opima.  He  triumphed  over  the  Volscians. 
{Livy,  vi.  16.) 

199.  Left  column. — A  coin  showing  the  third  dedication  of  the  spolia 

opima,  by  Marcellus,  wlio  killed  Viridomarus,  king  of  the  Gauls, 
A.  U.  530.  The  statue  is  a  Gaulish  chief,  from  the  Gallery  in 
the  Louvre.  A  coin  of  Tarentum ;  the  small  elephant  is  an 
extraordinary  addition  to  the  usual  type  of  the  city,  which  is 
Taras  on  the  dolphin. 


--■-■  LIST     OK     1  I.I.rSTK  ATIONS. 

l'.*'.^  iii<;h(  t'cliinui, — A  !^aiiinito  roiii.  A  l»arl);iri:iii  prisoner,  from 
tho  Louvre.  A  head  called  Pynlms,  from  a  east  of  the  <;em  in 
the  Florentine  Museum.  Beneath  is  a  hattle  with  elephants, 
from  :i  saroopliagus  in  the  Capitol  Museum. 

il'^'K  A  eoin  of  Vespasian  with  the  elei)hants  subservient  to  a  Koman 
triumph.  [Paccatus,  Pancg.  Theod.  c.  22.)  The  two  groups 
of  hert>es  and  Amazons  are  from  the  famous  hronzes  of  Siris, 
preserved  in  the  ]Jritish  Museum.  There  is  great  probal)ility 
that  they  were  j>art  of  the  armor  worn  by  some  Greek  of  liigh 
rank  in  the  last  battle  between  Pyrrhus  and  the  Romans ;  the 
military  trophies  are  taken  from  those  on  the  Capitol,  and  a 
frieze  from  the  temple  of  Bacchus. 

201,  202.  From  the  cartoons  by  Andrea  Mantcgna,  now  preserved  at 
Hampton  Court. 

203.  Victory  sacrificing  a  bull,  from  a  group  in  the  British  Museum. 

The  candelabrum  is  from  the  Louvre.  Coin  of  Augustus, 
showing  the  embroidered  gown,  scejitre,  and  crown ;  and,  on  the 
reverse,  steeds  and  car.  The  captives  below  arc  from  cameos 
preserved  in  Vienna  and  Paris. 

204.  .Jupiter  Capitolinus,  from  a  coin  of  Vitcllius.     The  arch  of  Con- 

stantine,  on  the  Via  Triumphalis  at  Bome. 

20o.  Left  column. — Coin  of  Corinth.  The  River  Nile,  from  a  coin  of 
Hadrian.  Sarmatia,  from  a  coin  of  Constantino.  Mauritania, 
from  a  coin  of  Hadrian. 

Rigid  column. — Coin  of  Rhodes.  Coin  of  Antiocheia,  Avith  the 
River  Orontes  at  lier  feet.  Coin  of  Carthage.  Arabia,  from  a 
coin  of  Trajan. 

20(j.  The  apotheosis  of  a  Roman  emperor,  from  a  cameo  at  Paris. 


THE    END. 
c.  SHZSXAii,  PXiRTXB,  19  St.  James  Street 


p*'f  y.;3 ' ,  •' ;..^ 


J  '-^ 


"^^^^ 


^^^v:--ft  -'J- 


